Worthing production offers return to life-defining role of Macbeth

SussexWorld

Macbeth really has been a life-defining role for Ross Muir who returns to it for this year’s Rainbow Shakespeare season in Worthing.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Now,

00:06great time of the year. We're just about to talk rainbow Shakespeare. Coming up this summer,

00:11two plays Macbeth from Tuesday, July the 8th to Sunday, July the 13th, Hidalgo, Arndon's Worthing,

00:17and then Much Ado About Nothing runs from Tuesday, July the 15th to Sunday, July the 20th.

00:22Now, lovely to speak to Ross and April, otherwise known as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Now, Ross,

00:29this is a great role for you to come back to. You last did it at the age of 16, and you're saying

00:35that it's kind of stuck in your mind, hasn't it? Frighteningly so, yeah, more than any other

00:41Shakespeare play I've done. I started looking at the script the other day, and I barely had to look

00:46at my lines, and they were just coming back. But I also think it's partly because it's so taught,

00:54and it's particularly well written, and very lean, and moves at quite a pace.

01:00So it's all there. And April, your role is to be, well, basically to be a bad influence,

01:06isn't it, really?

01:06She certainly spurs the intent of his desire, his ambition, for sure, yes.

01:17And she's the stronger character, isn't she?

01:20She's what?

01:21She's the stronger character, isn't she?

01:23I think she is, yes. Yes. I think she has a lot of gumption.

01:30What do you mean by that? It's a perverted kind of gumption, isn't it?

01:35It is. I think one always has to start, of course, with the text when approaching a character.

01:48But I've been a bit nerdy because I love history, and I've done some research on the historical

01:54Lady Macbeth. And I think that she's really driven more by a sense of righteousness and perhaps revenge

02:04for what she thinks she's properly entitled to, rather than just being a bad influence for the sake

02:12of being a bad influence. I think that she believes wholeheartedly that they deserve to be king and queen.

02:18And yet, Macbeth himself is not quite capable of grabbing that, is he, without her?

02:26No, no.

02:28And Ross, you're saying...

02:29No, I think one of the things...

02:30Sorry, off to you.

02:33No, sorry, I think there's a delay on my end, so...

02:36Oh, don't worry, don't worry.

02:36I apologise.

02:37Not at all.

02:38I was just saying that I agree.

02:41And Ross, you're saying the point is, you kind of have to think of them together, don't you?

02:45There's no more famous couple in Shakespeare, is there?

02:48Well, maybe one or two, but equally famous.

02:51They're incredibly...

02:52Yeah, they're incredibly powerful as a pair, but also self-destructive.

03:01And the weird thing is, obviously, after the murder has been committed, they then break apart.

03:08They become very, very isolated.

03:10And so I find that a really fascinating aspect of the play, because they get caught up in there...

03:19Well, Macbeth gets caught up, consumed by his guilt, really, and then trying to maintain the status quo of being king.

03:28And there's no way but forward.

03:31You know, you can't go back.

03:32And of course, you know, with Lady M, she's going, you know, slowly crazy, you know, the famous sleepwalking scene and everything.

03:42Absolutely.

03:43And April, that's one of the ironies, isn't it?

03:45As you were saying, Lady Macbeth is the instigator, and yet she's left behind and isn't needed, is she?

03:51No, no, I think that is very ironic.

03:56But I think she, very much like women of her time, probably lived vicariously through the men around her.

04:04And she's still benefiting greatly by his status.

04:09Yeah.

04:09So, yeah, it is complicated.

04:14It sounds a fascinating prospect.

04:16Good luck to you all with it.

04:18And it's Rainbow Shakespeare, then, which runs from July the 8th to July the 20th, Macbeth,

04:24followed by Much Ado About Nothing in High Damned Gardens in Worthing.

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