Macbeth starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo – review round-up

Macbeth – an audio experience

For Webster’s production, audiences are asked to don headphones, through which they can hear both the miked-up actors’ dialogue and Gareth Fry’s sound design. It is the staging’s central concept – and it divides the reviewers.

“In essence, the use of headphones achieves two things,” explains Andrzej Lukowski (Time Out, ★★★★). “One, it allows a constant stream of 3D sound to be relayed to your ears. And two, it allows the actors to talk, not project, using causal or even quiet registers that would normally never work.”

For some, it works brilliantly. Marianka Swain (London Theatre, ★★★★) finds it “groundbreaking”, Dominic Cavendish (Telegraph, ★★★★★) “eerie” and Arifa Akbar (Guardian, ★★★★★) “disturbing”. For Sam Marlowe (The Stage, ★★★★), it produces an “uncanny” effect of “dislocation” that turns Webster’s production into “a sensory, helter-skelter plummet into horror, paranoia and psychological disintegration”.

Others enjoy it less. Alice Saville (Independent, ★★★) finds it “a distraction”, Nick Curtis (Evening Standard, ★★★) calls it is a “gimmick” and Fiona Mountford (iNews, ★★★) reckons that it disrupts “that all-important connection between voice and corporeal actor”. For Sarah Crompton (WhatsOnStage, ★★★★) it “yields richly imaginative dividends” at first, then “diminishing returns”.

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Macbeth – a slick staging

Director Webster is best known for his multi-award-winning adaptation of Life of Pi, which transferred from the Sheffield Crucible to the West End, then on to Broadway. He has worked at the Donmar Warehouse before, staging Henry V with Kit Harington in early 2022.

Beyond its innovative, divisive use of sound, his production of Macbeth unites the critics in praise. It is “compellingly ritualistic” for Clive Davis (Times, ★★★★), “stylish” and “evocative” for Crompton, and “cool, cocky and utterly arresting” for Akbar. For Cavendish, it is a “compact, monochrome, chilling revelation of a production” that casts an “enthralling spell” over its audience.

“This is unquestionably a slick, stylish and sharply effective production,” adds Swain. “Children are everywhere, whether Banquo’s son or Macduff’s doomed boy, or haunting the soundscape with giggles and screams. It emphasises this realm’s reliance on dynastic structures, and adds a strong psychological underpinning for the Macbeths’ risky, disruptive actions.”

There is praise, too, for designer Vize. Her design “presents a raised white platform backed by a wall of gleaming glass that separates three musicians and the characters who are most helpless from the tragedy that plays out before their appalled gaze,” describes Marlowe. It is an “expressionist staging” that “resembles the magnificently spare gothicism of Joel Coen’s adaptation”, adds Akbar.

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Macbeth – terrifying Tennant

Tennant has established himself as one of Britain’s foremost actors on stage and screen, earning acclaim as everything from The Doctor to Hamlet to Scrooge McDuck. He played Macbeth in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation last year, and now returns to the role in person.

His performance is admired. His Macbeth is “riveting” for Marlowe, “gripping” for Lukowski, and “an unmissable monster” for Swain, while Saville describes him as “all restrained, troubled intensity” and Akbar says he is a “wiry, austere, self-righteous warrior”. For Curtis, it is “the most emotionally committed Shakespearean performance” that Tennant has given, while for Cavendish it is “a coruscating triumph”.

Jumbo, meanwhile, best known for her role in the CBS dramas The Good Wife and The Good Fight, also has plenty of Shakespeare experience, having played Rosalind in As You Like It at the Manchester Royal Exchange in 2011, Mark Antony in Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012 and Hamlet at the Young Vic last year. Her performance as Lady Macbeth also impresses.

She is “terrific throughout, at once thoughtful and heartless,” writes Cavendish, while Crompton praises her “remarkable combination of steel and softness” and Saville her “stillness and composure”. In fact, adds Lukowski, the whole cast delivers “tremendous, subtle performances”.

Macbeth – the verdict

Reviews are predominantly strong, with four stars from most critics and five from Cavendish in the Telegraph and Akbar in the Guardian. Everyone agrees that stars Tennant and Jumbo are excellent as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and that Webster’s staging and designer Vize’s set are slick and stylish. Some have doubts about the production’s central concept – its use of binaural headphones – which a few reviewers regard as a gimmick. For most, though, it is an intelligent idea that lends the production intimacy and intensity.