Helix, Dublin Until Mar 9 8pm €22/€20 01-7007000 thehelix.ie; Town Hall Theatre, Galway Mar 13-15 8pm €22/€20 tht.ie; Everyman Palace, Cork Mar 21-22 8pm €22/€20 everymanpalace.com; Theatre Royal, Waterford Mar 27 8pm €22/€20; Civic Theatre, Dublin Mar 13-15 8pm €22/€20 civictheatre.ie
In the space of the last Leaving Cert cycle, we have seen any number of Thanes. Macbeth has stood before us as a bloody warrior in Ireland, prowling ruined battlements that resembled a ghost estate for Jimmy Fay’s 2010 Abbey production. He was a wild, gaudy, self-destructing despot in Selina Cartmell’s 2008 version. And he has been variously represented as a Polish soldier encircled by motorbikes and as a smiley-faced children’s toy with a supporting cast of ninja figurines. So what can another Macbeth add to this mound of interpretations?
The answer, reports of director David Horan’s new production suggest, is that the play’s potentials remain limitless. Featuring Will Irvine as the man twisted by ambition and Maeve Fitzgerald as his nerveless wife, this contemporary-dress production makes liberal use of Radiohead in its soundtrack, men with ski goggles as its witches, and bodies that move (under the movement direction of Bryan Burroughs) with the slippery time techniques of cinema.
Such are the embellishments of theatre makers keen to stimulate the senses of predominantly school audiences, but the benefits are there for anyone who believes that classics are fathomless. Familiar as it seems, Macbethwill always be a tale full of sound and fury, signifying potentially anything.
Can't see that? Catch this: EquusMarket Place Theatre, Armagh; Mill Theatre, Dublin
