Word: macduff
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...Macbeth deserves. Coral Browne's Lady Macbeth, though, was intense but somewhat bouncy. She looked wrong, except, perhaps, in her sleep-walking scene. To fulfill my demands for the role of Lady Macbeth would take a rare actress, which, I am afraid, Miss Browne is not. John Neville as MacDuff, Jeremy Brett as Malcolm, and Jack Gwillim as Banquo give distinctive performances, and the lesser roles are all handled with unusually thorough skill...
...gesticulate eerily over a gigantic cauldron, but their intriguing dramatic effect never quite inspires awe. As a whole, however, the staging is excellent. Banquo's ghost and Macbeth's horrified reaction to it is brilliant, as is the convergence of enemies on stage around the final duel with MacDuff. The actors played well despite an audience that laughed at murder and sneezed at terror. The set, a few bold pillars of rock and occasional draperies, is combined with splendid lighting to provide a strong yet quickly flexible background for this generally first-rate production...
Their support, while not outstanding, was certainly adequate. Jay Schuchter and Mare Brugnoni, as Banquo and Macduff, are reliable in every instance, and Edgar Walsh handles the role of young Malcolm with remarkable sympathy. Harry Bingham provides a moment of good Shakespearean humor as the porter...
...difficult point of this interpretation must be clear. Macduff should have been a rooster. But Shakespeare was never very strong on his historical facts and he may very well have considered it added to the poignancy of the tragedy that Macduff should have drabber plumage. He may quite easily have muddled his ornithological facts. However he leaves no doubt in our mind that Macduff is a hen and not a rooster, for in the last scene (V, viii) Macbeth, a man who seldom minced words, says to Macduff the immortal words...
...Macduff. Brian Falk...