MacBeth: Great Performances

Starring: Stewart, Patrick and Fleetwood, Kate

Product Description

Following a London West End run in December 2007, a sold-out limited engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March 2008 and a subsequent eight-week run on Broadway, director Rupert Goold's gripping stage production of Macbeth - starring Sir Patrick Stewart in a triumphant, Tony-nominated performance - has been filmed for television in a co-production agreement between WNET.ORG and Illuminations Television, in association with the BBC. Originating at England's innovative Chichester Festival Theatre, director Goold's exciting interpretation relocates the bloody action to a nameless 20th-century netherworld. Tony-nominated Kate Fleetwood also returns to reprise her performance as Lady Macbeth. Shot in High Definition on UK locations, Goold maintains the atmosphere and tone of the critically acclaimed stage production, heightening the Shakespearean classic with an edgy style style reminiscent of Illuminations' recent film adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet.

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• UPC: 841887013338
• Release Date: January 2011
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Publisher: PBS
• Director: Goold, Rupert
• Starring: Stewart, Patrick, Fleetwood, Kate
• Runtime: 2 hours, 38 minutes
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: DVD
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Another out of time and place Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart.

Release Date: 6 October 2010 (USA) Sometimes posted as (2011). Great Performances Season 39, Episode 3. Episode aired Oct 6, 2010 Principal cast: Macbeth – Patrick Stewart Lady Macbeth – Kate Fleetwood Banquo – Martin Turner Macduff – Michael Feast Malcolm – Scott Handy Donalbain – Ben Carpenter Duncan / Doctor – Paul Shelley Lady Macduff – Suzanne Burden Lennox – Mark Rawlings Ross – Tim Treloar Angus – Bill Nash Old Seyward / Murderer – Christopher Knott The Porter – Christopher Patrick Nolan Fleance – Bertie Gilbert You may want to use subtitles as they slur the words and have heavy background noise. Later, it will settle down to clear siliquae, but still nice to read the subtitles. The actors start acting, and we finally get into the feel of the play. They may have the fun of overacting (not yelling but gesticulating). Starting with Act I, Scene I, and Act I, Scene II, are juxtaposed probably for a dramatic impact. This will not be the last time things have changed to match the movie and not the play. It may be a tad too much when in Act IV the witches do their “toil and trouble” speech to a “rap” music cadence. It is a tad unnerving to find witches replaced with ghoulish nurses, which is a tad stretching. The time and place are different, so the politics may not be as effective. And of course, being Shakespeareised, we get the popular history of the real Macbeth skewed. The bottom line, these are good actors, but so many things are out of place, so the unneeded effort to make this presentation unique made this presentation too unique and no longer Shakespeare, but the product of Director Rupert Goold. One should not quote for Macbeth, but in the end, you may find yourself saying, “Out, d-a-m-n-e-d spot! Out, I say!”