The Tragedy Of Macbeth @ Almeida Theatre...

Last Friday night Stuart and I went to see Shakespeare's bloody play The Tragedy Of Macbeth at the Almeida Theatre in London's glitzy Islington.

With a star-casting Macbeths (Saoirse Ronan and James McArdle) and auteur-ish director (Yael Farber) it was a fun evening. If by fun you mean a bare stage (later flooded with water), a wheelchair, a tap on a standpipe, a wheelbarrow full of old boots, and a wheelchair, and lots and lots of blood.

Saoirse Ronan's Lady Macbeth is great (if a little miscast), James McArdle's Macbeth is roaring and brutal, but the night (knight?) goes to Emun Elliott’s Macduff who is tremendous, both in grief and rage, rising up to the churning, thrashing McArdle in equal power.

Costumes range from kilts to battle dress to the witches in business suits – serves the magnificent cast in their passionate, often flawless delivery of the great familiar lines, made musical by Scottish and Irish voices.

A great evening.