I went to an interesting version of Macbeth in Stratford last night, performed by the Shakespeare Aloud! group, with only six actors. It was heavily cut, with most of the more political discussion scenes missing, but it kept the core of the story intact and was, as a consequence, very fast-paced. Macbeth is a short play in any case, but this was two 40 minute halves with a short interval.

The six actors did a great job, with only the actor playing Macbeth himself taking a single role. There were lots of quick costume changes and different voices. Lots of minor characters were cut. It really jarred only once, when the murder of Lady Macduff was immediately followed by the scene between Malcolm and Macduff. The murderer and Macduff were played by one actor; Malcolm and Lady Macduff by the other. It helped knowing the play so well, and there was quite a bit of whispering in the audience which I took to be ‘who is she/he now?’ questions. Cutting the political parts made it seem rather too much as if Macduff was taking merely personal revenge for the killing of his family, rather than that being only part of the reason for the overthrow of Macbeth. But overall, a really interesting production and I’ll certainly keep an eye out for more by this group – by day they do Shakespeare on demand to tourists at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.