From The Borehamwood Times

The Bard’s not so hard!

Review by LORNA McVICARS

Shakespeare 4 Kidz’s musical production of Macbeth at The Radlett Centre was billed for children up to 16 - I am 30 and thought it was the best performance of Shakespeare I have ever seen.

I studied Macbeth at A-level more than a decade ago but it was not until I watched this performance last Thursday that I understood, and appreciated, the play from beginning to end.

S4K performed Macbeth as a thriller and, in so doing, captured the spirit of how Shakespeare probably intended it to be acted when he wrote it.

I have sat through ‘adult’ productions of Macbeth, but it was this two-hour production that brought home to me, for the first time, the suspense, horror and psychological conflict of a story written hundreds of years ago.

The set remained simple and the same throughout, avoiding messy scene changes; but the use of special effects brought the atmosphere alive.

The sound and sight of lighting tore chillingly across the stage every time the witches appeared, heralding the onset of evil events.

They were traditional witches, but in the spirit of this production, their performance was upbeat with funky dancing and singing, which kept the audience watching without losing the eerie atmosphere.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, like the rest of the cast, were in old-style costumes, but they came across as modern people - she sported a blonde crop - facing a dilemma that would make great material for a psychological thriller today.

The actors stuck as much to Shakespeare’s original text as possible, but the play was peppered with some modern speech to make it easier to follow, and the singing and music helped keep it alive.

The production’s main strength lay in its ability to hold the attention of children without straying too much from the original, so that even if you stopped listening to the words the expressions and passion of the performers allowed you to still follow what was happening.

The play is aimed at young teenagers, but I think it would also give A-level students, and adults who have never done Shakespeare, a basic understanding of the play to help them study it in more detail.