13 – 14 January
There’s a lot to be said for enthusiasm. Last night’s performer, Edward Derbyshire, is certainly not wanting in that department. Deciding to tackle, single handed, one of the great plays in English literature takes a lot of the stuff, to say nothing of a good deal of pluck.
On the credit side with only one person on stage one is, as an audience member, inevitably drawn into the language which MrDerbyshire delivers with a welcome clarity. Anyone new to the play will marvel at the amount of ‘quotes’ that scatter themselves wantonly throughout the text. You soon realise the extent to which Shakespeare’s genius for metaphor has wound its way into the language of everyday speech. The amount of excision that is inevitably required to reduce the text to a manageable one man show could give the impression that the play is constructed from a box of quotes. In itself this is no bad thing for a reading, however for a theatrical performance something more is required.
Theatre is by its nature a collaborative affair in which a number of creative minds leave some mark on the finished performance. And the performance of course needs the other imaginative input of the audience. Looking at the supplied and it has to be said very useful programme notes, which include a scene by scene breakdown of the plot, there is no mention of a director which leads one to suspect the actor in this instance self-directs. Now, if an actor is ‘in the moment’ there might be a lot going on internally, however that may only translate to the audience as a momentary gap in proceedings with little dramatic importance. Too many of those and the actor may lose momentum and thereby their audience. Again an actor may well be thinking internally as different characters from one moment to the next, but unless that difference is communicated via voice and deportment the audience might become a little confused as to who is doing the talking and to whom.
The publicity material for last night’s performance suggested some new insight into the play by virtue of the fact that both Mr and Mrs Macbeth were emanating from the same mind and body. What I did feel was that we’d been invited to the country house of an eccentric, Shakespeare loving friend who had decided to regale us with his take on the classic. It was all terribly well meaning, but left one secretly waiting for the dinner gong.
★★☆☆☆ Graham Wyles, 14 January 2026
