Wednesday, September 20, 2006

When the best things in life aren't always free.

We won some free tickets to the Australian film Macbeth on Monday. We thought to ourselves why not, surely you can't go wrong with Shakespeare?

Apparently you can go very wrong.

Think Stephen King meets Shakespeare.

7 comments:

Andrew said...

I recall seeing a production of Macbeth at the New Theatre in Newtown in (I think) 1999. It would have to have been the single most appalling piece of theatre I have ever witnessed. The director of that version was stuck on the idea that Macbeth is all blood, guts and action ("blood will have blood", etc.) and so turned the whole thing into a banal spectacle with no sense of shade or nuance.

I've only seen the preview for the movie - it strikes me as following in a similar vein.

Thanks for the warning!

Rachel said...

yes very much so. so much blood that I might as well have been watching Chucky 4. And like I said no comedic relief!

Emma said...

Hi Rach,
Sorry again that Macbeth was such a shocker!

This comment is really just to let you know that I've posted a link to that NT Wright transcript on my blog coz I can't find all of the homegroup e-mail addresses! Seeing as homegroup makes up an enormous part of my readership anyway I thought it wouldn't hurt to utilise it for a helpful purpose!

Now I'm going to copy this and paste it almost identically into a comment on Andrew's blog!

Love Em

p.s. I sent your warning on to a few girls at work, it cheered some people up at the end of a long term. One woman went so far as to call it a "community service"!

byron smith said...

Andrew, my #1 worst theatric experience (though I'll grant that your experience is mature enough to be my experience's grandfather) was also at the New Theatre in Newtown. Did anyone else in '96 see the production of Hamlet? 'The drink, Hamlet, the drink' - Gertrude wins worst actress ever, and this line topped everything.

Christopher said...

Hi Rachel,

I went and saw Macbeth on saturday evening just gone.

I also thought it was ridiculously violent. About four couples walked out of the theatre I was in.

The thing that got me the most was the casting. Sometimes it works to have someone do a role that they wouldn't ordinarily perform, Robyn Williams in 'One Hour Photo Shop' for instance. But watching Mick Molloy attempting to speak the language of the bard while strangley a woman to death just after shooting a child was a big jump into the ridiculous. As was ex-Gladiator Vulcan, Col Carpenter, that guy from Heartbreak High, and a host of other b-grade TV "stars". Gary Sweet was suprisingly good.

Rachel said...

yes even though it sucked I was rather partial to Sam Worthington as Macbeth. We thought Duncan was superb- I didn't realise it was Garry Sweet. weird. Yeah and Banquo did a good job but I think he used to be on POlice rescue too!
wE found ourselves laughing in all the mick molloy scenes and they were the most violent and serious! and yeah it turned into spot an ex home and away star game.

oh yeah and Lady Macbeth was plain wrong.

Christopher said...

Banquo was on police rescue, I was wondering where I had seen him!
I though he was good.
Eve burst into laughter when Kim Gy... (aka Col Carpenter) appeared.