After we all got our fun and fill of Trafalgar Square, it was time for M.C. and I to head over to Trafalgar Studios for our play...
I'm not sure if I mentioned this before. I got tickets to see Macbeth... no big deal. Just tickets to West End London production of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies. Oh, and did I mention that JAMES MCAVOY played Macbeth? Oh, I did? Well let me say it again. I saw James McAvoy in the flesh no more than 6 feet away from me because our seats were so unbelievably close! We were only 3 rows back!
Can you believe it? No? Well look at it again!
BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This production was actually set in the future! Macbeth has been done 50,000,000 times in the same-old-same-old way, so the director shook it up a bit and decided to throw the tragic hero into a post-apocalyptic world where people have to fight for power to stay alive. It was as if Shakespeare had been watching hours of the Walking Dead while writing this play... if you can imagine such a thing. All the actors wore guerrilla army-style clothing and carried machetes and shotguns. I loved everything about it. Although, if you've read Macbeth, you know that it's not the most feel-good story of all time... to say the least.
Here are me and M.C. before the production began:
And here we are at Intermission:
We were too distraught with grief and anguish to take a picture of ourselves after it was over. It was truly emotionally draining, which I really didn't expect because Macbeth is not my favorite Shakespearean play; and as an English major, I've read it so many times that I could practically recite the lines along with the actors. Right about now, you might be asking yourselves
"Heather, if you don't particularly like Macbeth
then why would you spend almost $100 for a ticket to see it?"
Well, that's an easily answered question:
JAMES MCAVOY!
Geez... didn't you see Atonement?
All jokes aside, I knew that James McAvoy would give an amazing performance because I have loved everything he's been in, so I thought why not give him a shot? And I am so glad I did! It was the first time I actually felt sorry for Macbeth. It's so easy to read that play and think that he's nothing more than a power-hungry, psychopathic pushover with a harpy for a wife, which, let's be honest, he is; but this production made him so much more. He's just returned from war and all he wants is to survive in peace; but he's convinced that the King and his sons won't allow that to happen. Who should be King then? Who is the only man that can absolutely guarantee that he won't have to go back to war? Himself. It's heartbreaking to watch him slip deeper and deeper into madness, which is something I never realized before seeing it performed.
The play was incredibly violent. All of the actors were perpetually covered in at least one layer of blood. The most powerful scene was the murder of Macduff's family. They actually staged the death scene for Macduff's wife and son. It was brutal and absolutely disturbing; but it was the moment when we feel the most hope that Macbeth might change, and then the most heartbreak when he's even worse than we'd imagined.
The final scenes, including Macbeth's death, were the bloodiest of the entire play. There was literally a shower of blood raining on the stage. Macduff carried Macbeth's severed head... Yikes.
This is what the stage looked like after the play ended:
Lovely.
Luckily the day didn't continue in murder and mayhem.
TO BE CONTINUED!
STAY TUNED!
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