The Stage
Richard Huggett

This admirable production of Shakespeare's shortest and most popular tragedy has the unfashionable virtue of being faithful to the author's intentions which, in the current climate of theatre, is a situation of uncommon rarity... Clean, clear and uncluttered are the key words which describe this splendid production.  There are no silly production gimmicks, no designer fantasies, the action is simple, the play moves speedily from one scene to the next, and those new to it will have no trouble in understanding what is happening and to whom.  The costumes are simple, timeless and placeless.  Kenneth McClellan - the director - also understands that not every man in history had a full head of hair.  His Macbeth is bald, which offers not only a pleasing note of authenticity but also confirms that baldness can be attractive to women, as has been demonstrated by so many actors.  The Former RSC actor, Michael Hughes, strongly built, with a splendid resonant voice, is just about the best Macbeth since Olivier, finding no problem reconciling the poet with the soldier, the lover with the morderer.  McClellan has put a lot of eroticism into his handling of the witches and restored the Hecate scene whose absence has been so complete that this is the first time I have seen it.