Macbeth

Macbeth

Always proud to be the scourge of purists, Blue Apple take a look under the bonnet of this story of murderous ambition and throw out whatever isn’t needed to push the story forward to its inevitable end. As experienced purveyors of throwing light into areas previously dark, you can also expect a few moments that are certainly not in the original.

Of course you’ll have all of Macbeth’s greatest hits in the original beautiful language, but prepare for the unexpected and you’ll get more of what you do like and less of what you don’t.

“Blood? Yes. Murder? Yes. But laughs? Songs? Puppets? Dance? Oh yes…this is, after all ‘The Blue Apple Macbeth’.”

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Review by Elaine Chapman, an independent reviewer who reviews at https://theatreandartreviews.wordpress.com/

Below is a snippet. Read her full review of The Blue Apple Macbeth here.

‘Macbeth’ has been told and retold since 1606, but we’re confident that you’ll not have seen a version like this. We like to take liberties and this year, as our winter show crashed into Easter, limiting our preparation time – we took more liberties than usual. This is the real Macbeth (albeit tightened up from the longer original) with all the hits but with an added surreal or absurd flavour. The extra song and dream sequences here have been created by the cast with the volunteers who tirelessly help get our pieces on stage. They take us to new places which Shakespeare never thought of, but they bring us back to what is at the heart of the play – toxic ambition.

The period since spring of 2020 has been a bumpy ride for all of us with many of our cast being more vulnerable than most. They have struggled on valiantly to keep doing what they do; taking their place in the community of national storytellers, sharing their take on the world and making us see through a new lens. Our ‘Macbeth’ has elements of the surreal and the absurd shot through it, but perhaps we have spent the last year or two learning that both the surreal and the absurd are closer than we used to think was possible? Thanks for joining us for this show – without you we would be like the sound of one hand clapping!

Richard Conlon, Director

Images from rehearsal by Mike Hall

Performances at Theatre Royal Winchester

Thursday 7, Friday 8, Saturday 9 July at 7.30pm

From audience member E: "Tonight's Macbeth was really excellent - the clever, dual storyline (shades of Sliding Doors), the jokes and puppets, the additional prose and the sur-titles made for a great evening of theatre. The cast seemed to include lots of new faces (Tommy as Will S was a good touch, too) which felt very healthy and filled the stage with energy. 

Please send my congratulations to them all, and in particular a very charismatic Macbeth and a Lady M with a gazillion lines to learn, which she did well. I did Macbeth at O-Level and have hated every performance I have seen, being so grim and relentlessly bloody. But tonight made me feel quite different about it."

From audience member R: “Last night was one of my favourite Blue Apple shows I have seen in recent years. I really enjoyed your adaptation and thought it was a brilliant weaving of the text into a modern adaptation of a new story in its own right. It had something really special about it and considering the challenges of putting this show together in two months rather than your normal rehearsal period, and furthermore considering where the piece was just a week ago when I attended a rehearsal; I thought it was masterful. There was some great chunks of original Bard for audiences to enjoy and production wise it looked incredibly magical under the Theatre Royal Winchester lights. It was great to see the core sharing the spotlight with the main company who had some lovely moments centre stage shining in solo and duo scenes. Well done!”

From audience member J: “My Mother and I had a lovely evening and we were super impressed by the actors – so much to learn!!!A wonderful production and congratulations on the performance.”