Macbeth, Donmar Warehouse 

Rating:

With Ralph Fiennes’ Macbeth in Liverpool heading to Edinburgh next month and David Tennant’s take on the bloody Scottish monarch officially installed in Covent Garden last night, we have the intriguing prospect of an English warlord laying waste to Scotland and a Scottish warlord wreaking havoc in London.

Perhaps they should both raise an army and meet half way to slug out who’s boss – in Leeds. The only trouble is that these two very cerebral thinker Thanes could well wind up calling a summit and reaching an entente cordiale.

Tennant has the advantage of experience handling the play’s supernatural voodoo from his time as Doctor Who.

But Shakespeare provided no Tardis or sonic screwdriver to defeat the witches who lure him into slaughter and doom. More seriously, the stand-out feature of Max Webster’s new production is not so much the acting as the minimalist production itself which is performed entirely to an audience wearing headphones hooked on every seat.

Yes, this makes it a bit like listening to an audio book or podcast with a illustrative performance attached. In the solemn, dourly Scottish staging, the whole cast wear black kilts and grey vests or polo-necks, with DM bovver-boots.

The stand-out feature of Max Webster’s new production is not so much the acting as the minimalist production itself which is performed entirely to an audience wearing headphones hooked on every seat

Pictured: Lola Shalam, Lucy Mangan and Danielle Fiamanya in Macbeth

Eerie Celtic music is played from a gallery separated from the broad white platform of a stage by smoky glass – the portentous sounds of squawking crows, heavy breathing and plangent song are relayed to our headsets.

It’s very impressive. And yes, to use the phrase du jour, it’s ‘immersive’. But it does also get in the way and if you (rebelliously) take your headphones off you realise the actors are not immersed in the same sound scape as you.

This has the unfortunate effect of taking roughly 20 per cent off the performers’ intensity.

Tennant’s voice is of course a powerful instrument: Thick, resonant and classically trained with the added threat of sounding like a Scottish hardman.

But he’s also an inward looking, muttering Macbeth who’s forced to dial it down so as not to blow the mics. I found him more exciting when he takes the lid off late on and lets rip in battle. Until then he’s in danger of seeming more like an unstable office manager who no one’s sure how to handle.

Tennant’s voice is an instrument, but he’s also an inward looking muttering Macbeth who’s forced to dial it down so as not to blow the mics

Interestingly Cush Jumbo as his wife, Lady Macbeth, seems in her turn like a difficult colleague. 

Their chemistry is cold, but compelling. From the start she seems to be suppressing a nervous breakdown and does indeed have a panic attack before her OCD hand washing right at the last. 

Yes, the show has oodles of atmosphere, but it comes at the cost of separating us from the actors. 

And yet, it’s so unusual and ambitious that Tennant probably has the edge on Fiennes. That’s why I’ve got to hand it to the whole company and hail this Macbeth as Thane of Covent Garden.