A Review of Happier Year’s Macbeth

In the days leading up to the opening night of Happier Year’s production of Macbeth there was a sense of considerable hype. It was not entirely hype for the performance itself, given that it is a text that one too many of us had studied at GCSE and not all had enjoyed, but rather for the striking marketing. Everyone within the theatre scene at Oxford had appeared to have seen Freddie Houlahan’s stunning low key photographs and was cooing over their artistry. With this in mind, it was with anticipation that many of us attended the performance, our curiosity sparked by the promised Shakespearean experience within the black box of The Michael Pilch Studio.

Upon first entering The Pilch, the initial thought in the minds of the audiences was the distinct lack of set. Beside the black and white wall hanging that was somewhat reminiscent of a colour by numbers, there was simply a blank canvas. The seating was arranged in a traverse layout, suggesting an innovative approach to the space and the action that would take place there. With these impressions having being established, the space went dark and the performance began. It was a performance in which most wore Barbour jackets or suits and Leah Aspden’s Macbeth sported a leather corset. This innovative use of costume both brought the age old tale into the modern age and played into the low key style of the marketing material. With our protagonist and his wife dressed in black leather rather than the waxed jackets of the rest of the military characters, the sense of their removal from the company was instantly established. Equally, the dressing of the witches in white and the use of the yellow lighting to reflect their presence was an excellent tool in the establishment of otherness. In this particular performance the Weird Sisters were both separate to the action and central to the plot, with the three actors playing ensemble roles as well as their expected supernatural scenes. This integration of the witches into the greater action of the plot, presented them as ever present and with far more agency within the progression of the Macbeth’s story. Thus, the directorial choice was made that the witches were in fact to blame for the bloody acts of the tale, rather than accepting the angle that the supernatural soliciting was neither good nor ill. As an extension of this, the reanimation of George Vyvyan’s Angus during the opening scene gave the sense that he was an observer through who’s eyes they were able to witness all that they may otherwise have missed.

Our titular character, played by OUDS president Leah Aspden, was a far more comedic take of this role than I have ever come across before. The emotional aspects of the character was undoubtedly explored, but this more humorous element was somewhat disconcerting and certainly highly unexpected. Yet, of course, the juxtaposing of comedy and tragedy has long been a successful playoff, as could be seen in Oliver Tanner’s wonderful performance of the Porter. Lady Macbeth was by contrast just as expected for the role – by which I mean that Shakespeare’s strongest and most formidable female character was played to perfection by the powerhouse Juliette Imbert. The actor took command of both the space and the role, no more so than in her outstanding performance in the famed ‘out damned spot’ monologue. Equally, Ethan Bareham rose to the challenge of Malcolm wonderfully, creating a memorable portrayal of the character despite his limited presence within the narrative. While he was more noticeable for his quiet smirk while in the shadow of Freddie Houlahan’s Duncan, he came into his own when interacting with Hetta Johnson’s Macduff. It is undeniable that the scene which resonated most with the modern audiences was the discussion between these two characters regarding how a man should feel grief (‘I must also feel it as a man’). With centuries of the masculine oppression of emotions in our history, it was a resounding moment in which an ancient playwright wrote something that transcended times and trends in order to speak to today’s society.

This interpretation was marketing as one which was more ensemble focussed than audiences are typically used to and there was certainly evidence of the way in which the characters were given a more equal amount of stage time than in other performances. There was, of course, the presence of multi-rolling; however, it was in places a little confusing given the prominence of the actors’ primary characters within the plot. There was the sense that this was not always a necessity and that others, such as Houlahan, could have been given a larger presence. Instead, the floor light played an iconic role as a ghost in one point in the play. This decision led to the impression that the ghost was in a way merely a light in the darkness that Macbeth had interpreted as the murdered king due to his disturbed state of mind. It was an interesting and unexpected reinterpretation of the text. Equally, the ghostly dagger (as in many productions) was purely imagined. While on the topic of lighting, the choices of colours to reflect different characters and places was expertly executed, with the red light often being representative of the normal state, thus implicitly suggesting the bloody overtones of the play.

There may have been some tripping on Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter and it may not have been all that the wyrd sisters had promised; however, this reinterpretation of the classic did seek to find a new angle within an extensive canon. Perhaps the witches could have been more ethereal and the sword fighting far more realistic, but the use of costume, lighting and a frankly ambitious Pilch layout were expertly handled. All of the actors were undoubtedly strong, with a few giving outstanding performances. No one had a moment in which they were merely a background character in the scene, not acting but only present, and those who were key to the action were in no way a weak link. While there is so much more that I can say, I will leave with only the final thought that this was a play that maintained a striking continuity of a low key and minimalist aesthetic.

Photograph curtesy of Freddie Houlahan