Theatre review: Lady M: His Fiend-Like Queen, Glasgow Tron Theatre

BOILING Shakespeare’s most exciting, gorily visceral play down to an hour, this absorbing adaptation of the Scottish Play from Theatre Jezebel engages from the outset and never relinquishes its grip.

As a regular contributor to Oran Mor’s Classic Cuts season, director Mary McLuskey knows how to strip a well-kent tragedy back to its essential parts.

The famous speeches remain largely intact, and despite the cast being reduced to just Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches, the guilt, butchery and uncanny machinations of the plot endure. Moreover, the deep love between the principals is satisfyingly foregrounded, rescuing the queen from harsher, less human interpretations, even though Lesley Hart is forced to convey her descent into madness and death with even greater speed than usual.

Without others’ testimony to his soldiery and leadership, Michael Moreland can only grow belatedly into Macbeth and he’s commandingly impressive. The reimagining of the pivotal scene, with his possession by spirits the witches call forth is wonderfully rendered, reinvesting it with real horror, with his perception of Banquo’s ghost also powerful.

Designer Kenny Miller’s dark, unforgiving, mirror-enclosed set deserves mention, perfect for presenting the foul deeds of murder and witchcraft and their psychological fallout.

Rating: ****