Word: macbeths
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...idiocies of trying to replace her stolen immigration card. The regular supporting players (Richard Shull, Robert Moore) are all truly supportive and like its model, the show is blessedly intelligent. It's still pretty lightweight work for the very talented Diana Rigg, whose roles have ranged from Lady Macbeth at the Old Vic to Mrs. Emma Peel of the Avengers TV series. But as long as the splendid Miss Rigg wants to while away a bit of her time whirling gracefully through a (highly remunerative) American TV series, She's welcome...
...Macbeth...
...attempt to put the disappointing performances of the two principals out of my mind as I drove home, I tried to think of players whose work I had seen but whose performances as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth I most regretted missing. I extrapolated that I would have most admired the Macbeths of Laurence Olivier and Ian Keith, and the Lady Macbeths of Florence Reed and Dame Sybil Thorndike. Well, there will be more productions of Macbeth; and, unlike Macduff in the just-cited scene, I have not lost my hopes...
...Everhart is splendid in his one comic cameo as the drunken Porter. Coleridge thought this scene spurious, but it is genuine Shakespeare and inspired dramaturgy. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth hears the chilling pounding at the gate and has second thoughts: "Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!" How follow such a climactic moment? Shakespeare's solution was perfect. The only comparable spot I can think of occurs in the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, when the full chorus climaxes thrillingly with words about "standing before God," and is followed by the ludicrously syncopated sounds of a distant...
...what Bernard Shaw called Shakespeare's "word music" that is so lacking generally in this Macbeth, though it is there in unsurpassed abundance in the text. The only scene placed in England, which comes well towards the end, is the single instance where its three main participants show a full feeling for the melody and rhythm of their lines as well as the sense. Praise, then, for Michael Levin's Macduff, Alvah Stanley's Ross, and, above all, Philip Kerr's Malcolm. In this colloquy these three men talk to each other, listen to each other, and demonstrate their musicality...