D.S. Lewis

I suspected that this adaptation might prove, as the English say, to be "marmite," by which they mean any individual audience member will either love it or hate it. Browsing the (overwhelmingly) high and (sporadically) low praise, I think I was right. This is my favorite play, period. As an high school English teacher and Shakespeare nerd, I have seen every televised and film adaptation as well as somewhere around twenty theatrical presentations both here in the U.S. as well as at the Globe in London and the Swan in Stratford-on-Avon, and I think this is the best version that I have ever seen. Anyone who enjoyed the 1979 black box production starring Ian McKellen and Judi Densch, or the wild version Orson Welles' produced in 1948 should appreciate this adaptation. If you're looking for a successor to the singularly excellent, if somewhat burlesque version Polanski directed, this might not please you, though it might. I understand the reviewers who hated the whispered dialogue, the lack of majesty or exterior shots, and I think that if you go in expecting a more maximalist interpretation of the play or a stentorian delivery of all the well-worn passages, you will be extremely disappointed. This is not a full orchestra production, this is a haunting piece of chamber music. During the Christmas holiday before the pandemic, my family and I went to see a production of Macbeth at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, a small and indoor theater that only seats 350, attached to the more famous Globe Theatre on Bankside. Productions at the Wanamaker have little to no sets and are lit entirely by candlelight. Coen's adaptation brought me back to that theatrical production in spirit and in scope. There, like here, actors deliver lines in their normal voices without the need to project, and the experience is like being a fly on the wall during a crawl through secret assignations and palace intrigues. After all, Macbeth, if you subtract a blasted heath and a climactic battle, is conducted entirely within spcific spaces--rooms filled with witchcraft, suspicions, ghostly apparitions, and plots within plots. As the plot of the play begins to set itself in motion, the characters whisper to the audience "hie thee hither" more than they order us to stand back. The Bermanesque lighting and cinematography that Coen's uses as well as the perfectly square format adds to the sense of tightness and suffocation. What changes Coen makes to the play are minor and work exceedingly well. The pacing, which can seem rushed in less masterful productions, is perfect here. If you know the play, you won't mind the way that Shakespeare's lines have been withdrawn into something closer to modern dialogue. If you are unfamilar with the play, read it first and then try the Polanski. Put this one aside, though, for later. This one is a masterpiece.