By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***/*****

WHEN?: Saturday 9 December, opens 15 December and runs through 10 February 2024 RUNTIME: 115 minutes (without interval) UPDATE: Transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre 1 October through 14 December 2024 Tickets

Should the wearing of headphones ever be a requirement for theatre?

• Read on for reasons including how this production will be divisive and felt as if it was conceived for cinema rather than theatre

We had 2 reviewers at the 2nd preview of this production of Shakepeare’s Macbeth starring Doctor Who David Tennant (Good, Harold Pinter Theatre) and in the interests of fairness their wildly different experiences will be detailed here.

Director Max Webster (As You Like It, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) gives us a kilted Tennant speaking in his native tongue and a divisive Cush Jumbo as the Macbeths in this intimate 251-seater venue.

For us the tone of the evening was set as soon as we entered the venue when we were told by staff that 1 of the cast had a nut allergy and asking us whether we had any nut-based products in our possession.

We don’t envy the venue’s ushers who have to insist the audience don headphones for this production because for us the joy of theatre is its communal shared experience and we find the wearing of ear defenders isolating and utterly opposed to that.

At this point we should explain that our companion found the audio soundtrack on his headphones enhanced his viewing experience and amplified the mumblecore whispering and muttering onstage to allow it to be perfectly heard and give a real sense of the inner thoughts of the Macbeths and their increasing paranoia as they maximise their ‘vaulting ambition’.

For us however the simplicity of the all-white stage with a glass box at its rear was diminished by the curiously underpowered lead performances but we chose not to wear headphones for much of the production because we felt that technology should not be relied upon to enhance the live theatrical experience.

Our companion however wore the headphones throughout and felt it was 1 of the best productions of Macbeth that he’d ever seen because the audio experience was exemplary and the edit of the text was so strong.

The popularity of the cinema version of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour has sparked debate about the nature of gigs and the importance of their working primarily as shows in their own right for those in attendance or whether compromises need to be made for them for their increasingly financially successful celluloid incarnations.

For us this Macbeth had the feel of a production conceived as a cinema experience which was completely at odds with the theatrical venue in which we saw it.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Donmar Warehouse Tickets
• Have you seen Macbeth before and are you a fan of David Tennant?
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