‘Macbeth’: David Tennant and Cush Jumbo Deliver the Goods
David Tennant and Cush Jumbo perform a scorching "Macbeth," filmed live "for the big screen" in London.
When it comes to filming a staged performance, you’ve got hurdles. Foremost is the fact that you can never quite replicate the human frisson of being in the physical presence of people taking on the risk, vulnerability, and sheer bravery of creating theater.
Then there is the fact that letting a camera rove where no audience can go rather cheats one of the medium’s greatest challenges — its obvious artifice. Great performances overcome everything from the heads in front of you to the illuminated fire exits to the fact that somewhere in the back of your mind, you know the guy in the ruffle will be driving home in a beat-up Toyota. If a close-in camera shot cuts away entire swaths of these distractions, it risks undermining the achievement in delivering moments when, against all sensory odds, a play is so absorbing that one’s brain overflies the real in favor of the fiction.
So, why bother filming a live performance at all? Why not dispense with pretense and just Hollow Crown it? Ultimately, the answer is that a filmed staging can capture enough of the live experience to make it worthwhile for the many who can never hope to see it live. If you can accept the fact that these will always exist as related but different species, then they have their pluses.
Which brings us to Macbeth, filmed live at the Donmar Warehouse in London. The fact that it was filmed “especially for the big screen” is the first big clue that it aspires to more than planting a few cameras around like surrogate audience members. Indeed, little here is from the from the perspective of the seated.
More often than not, the camera is up close and personal with whomever is speaking, hovering mid-air and at a distance to capture scenes of action, or looking down from above to inject visual themes to the stark minimalism of the production. Most notably, the performers are miked, allowing for good sound, but also all manner of non-theatrically-projected whisperings, conversations, and muttered asides.
So, does it work? Largely. Certainly, those familiar with leads David Tennant (Dr. Who) and Cush Jumbo (The Good Fight), robust stars of the small screen, will delight in the chance to see them in one of Shakespeare’s most accessible plays, with the thrilling discovery (at least for Americans) that both are highly accomplished stage actors.
Of course, there is no doubt that the intimacy of the close-ups makes the most of their talents for the screen. In fact, some of the best moments are those in which Tennant’s Macbeth delivers monologues almost furtively to the camera, as though it were a confidant. By rights, we should never get this close, but with an actor like Tennant, it’s worth it.
Still, as with any Macbeth, the effectiveness of a production rests in how it interprets the psychology of the man and his launch into a spiraling bloodlust. Director Max Webster partners with Tennant to not only deliver a Macbeth of action and intelligence but also one who harbors a relatable angst. It works well in describing why the killing of his own king is so triggering: he is not inherently evil, but neither is he ready for the avalanche of self-loathing and bitterness that arrives in its aftermath.
Instead of driving atonement, it drives a seemingly neurotic justification for even more violence. And Tennant has range. When he learns of Lady Macbeth’s death, he captures the moment with beautifully textured emotion, weaving love, remorse, and resignation in turn. This is a gratifying and logical interpretation, and Tennant’s facility with the language is stellar.
As Lady Macbeth, Jumbo is a quietly luminous energy amid the darkly-kilted men. Her face offers an endlessly fascinating plane of barely perceptible tension between her public persona and the roiling turmoil beneath. When her emotions do erupt to the surface, it’s all the more striking. Crucially, she brings a powerful sense of person to a character the play never truly explores, and she is a convincing match for this Macbeth, even if their chemistry is somewhat courtly. Like Tennant, her Shakespeare flows like silk.
And there is narrative brilliance here. One of the most pivotal scenes in any Macbeth is the moment in which Macduff learns that Macbeth has had his family killed. Unless primed correctly, it’s almost impossible to bring the righteous catharsis to Macbeth’s later comeuppance. As Macduff, Noof Ousellam hits it out of the park, bringing a beautifully crafted, heartbreaking intensity to his grief and anger. We may be violating the creed by being close enough to see his tears, but who cares?
What wobbles do occur are, somewhat ironically, in some of the theatrics. Next to the intimate realism of the performances, the periodic crowd of disapproving onlookers, interludes of walking movement, and the battles often feel stagey. This is where the mixed media falls as neither fish nor fowl, and it is an inevitable distraction.
A more avoidable stumble is the porter’s scene, re-imagined as a fourth-wall-breaking interlude of improv-comedy. Jatinder Singh Randhawa brings all the chutzpah he can, but it just doesn’t fly.
But respect this filmed Macbeth for what it is — a cohesive, powerful rendering of the play. It may not be live, but, in its way, it delivers the goods.
Macbeth (★★★★☆) screens at the Shakespeare Theatre’s Harman Hall (610 F St. NW) on Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. To purchase tickets or find more venues near you, visit www.macbethdonmarcinema.com.
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