Macbeth Performance

On 25th November, Year 11 were lucky enough to watch a performance of Macbeth, by Box Clever, in order to help us understand the plot and context behind the play prior to our reading of it. The performance was very engaging despite only having three actors and three raised platforms as the set. This was mainly because of the clever use of lighting, which was modified on the fly by the actors in order to make up for the lack of complex scenery or costumes. They also had exciting fight sequences - where the actors performed parkour around the platforms and used stage knives. Additionally, they made use of the audience to fill in smaller roles such as Fleance, King Duncan or the guests at the feast. This audience involvement made the performance much more exciting and helped bring Macbeth to life. While the play was heavily edited from the original text to make it more relevant to modern society, it still managed to incorporate the key quotes and they even added a scene midway through where two narrators analysed some of the actions and motives of the key characters to help us further understand Macbeth. Overall, I found the Box Clever performance of Macbeth to be a very high-quality performance which succeeded in simultaneously improving our knowledge of the text and being highly entertaining. Nicholas Blackwell 11M