This new play by David Greig is destined to become a classic. It's only mid-February, but I can confidently predict that it will rank among the best productions of 2010, even before the final gongs for last year are handed out at next month's Olivier awards. I think it's probably the best new play the Royal Shakespeare Company have put on for years. It takes real ambition to take on Shakespeare at his own game by imagining what is in effect a sequel to Macbeth, but Greig meets the challenge head-on with his own 'Scottish play'. I've seen a number of other works by Greig in London and Edinburgh over the last decade or so, including Outlying Islands and the more recent Midsummer, and this one is by far the best. To describe it as a play about war and occupation or to suggest that it is merely a kind of remix of Macbeth would be to sell it short, because Greig creates half a dozen terrific characters, all of whom get the chance to dominate the stage at the Hampstead theatre, which has been remodelled and turned half-sideways to produce a thrusting platform with a stepped pyramid at the back. The theatrical language and the look of the production are Shakespearean, as is the structure and the alternation between 'high' and 'low' characters and the use of comedy to break the tension at tragic moments. But the language is bang up to date and never feels like historical pastiche. Greig picks up the story after the death of Macbeth, here referred to only as 'the tyrant'. An invading English army led by Siward of Northumberland has toppled him and plans with the best of intentions (no rape and pillage permitted) to bring peace to the country. The story departs radically from Shakespeare almost immediately, as the English soldiers capture the tyrant's widow Gruach. Dunsinane castle isn't quite big enough for Gruach, the mother of a teenage boy who is a claimant to the the throne, and Malcolm, installed by the English to displace her. Siward, trying without much success to follow Macduff's complex explanation of Scottish clan rivalries, quickly realises he has bitten off more than he can chew, especially when he begins to succumb to the charms of the queen. But it is not only the Scots who have shifting allegiances; there's an English officer who is venal enough to be corrupted by the queen's promises into spiriting her son to safety. Malcolm also has his own agenda, and it's clear that the aftermath of invasion and occupation is the moment the problems really start. Where have we heard that all before? Greig subtly uses language to suggest the modern parallels with counter-insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, without ever bashing the audience over the head or patronising us. Squaddies and officers find Scotland cold and inhospitable, and ask openly what they are doing in this godforsaken country. They want to go home but can't leave without winning the war. It all sounds familiar, but Greig's writing and his characterisation are so good that the actors are able to relish their parts. As one would expect from the RSC, this is a meticulous ensemble production in which Roxana Silbert expertly manipulates a large cast to maximum effect. Siobhan Redmond, reigning queen of Scottish theatre (at least in my book), is magnificent as Gruach, while Jonny Phillips is excellent as Siward, who goes from high-minded intentions to bloodthirsty cruelty as the play unfolds. At the end of act one he thinks he has pulled off a masterstroke of diplomacy to reconcile the Scottish factions, but is spectacularly betrayed by Gruach, who flees Dunsinane to hoist her own banner of revolt. I have to disagree with Michael Billington's Guardian review, which finds Siward's change unmotivated; I find him totally convincing as he succumbs to the remorseless logic of a brutal occupation. Brian Ferguson as Malcolm, Alex Mann as the venal lord Egham, Ewan Stewart as Macduff and Sam Swann as a young cockney English soldier all make the most of their well-written parts, though it is inevitably Siobhan Redmond in an outsize red wig who steals the show.
Why do I predict this will become a classic and what do I mean by that? Although it needs a large cast, that is also true of Macbeth. I think that like Shakespeare's original, it will stand up to a variety of different treatments. It's an intelligent play about war which will never go out of date as long as armies invade and occupy other countries; and it offers a series of great parts for actors. I have no idea what the RSC plans to do with this play after its four-week run in Hampstead, but I think it deserves a much wider audience. Perhaps the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war could invite the cast to give a special performance in Westminster.
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