CurtainUp
CurtainUp

The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings
www.curtainup.com


HOME PAGE

SITE GUIDE

SEARCH

REVIEWS

REVIEW ARCHIVES

ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP

FEATURES

NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings


LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway

NYC Restaurants

BOOKS and CDs

OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Connecticut
Philadelphia
Elsewhere

QUOTES

TKTS

PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS

LETTERS TO EDITOR

FILM

LINKS

MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp London London Review
Dunsinane


A settled kingdom is one in which everyone is dead. — Malcolm
Dunsinane
Birnam Wood arrives at Dunsinane (Simon Annand)
In a most interesting sequel to Shakespeare's Scottish play, the Royal Shakespeare Company brings a superb ensemble production of David Greig's latest play Dunsinane to a newly arranged space at Hampstead Theatre. On a slate lined apron stage representing Scotland's rocky ground is played out the invasion of Scotland in the Eleventh Century.

The situation is that the English army, under the leadership of Siward, the Earl of Northumberland (Jonny Phillips) are there to support King Malcolm's (Brian Ferguson) regime, to bring peace to the area after the death of Macbeth and to subdue the warring chieftains. Does this sound familiar? The parallels are there with Afghanistan and much is universally true for all time about the feelings of soldiers on occupation of a foreign land and their desire to get home.

Dunsinane opens with a young soldier describing the journey they have made by sea from the Essex coast to Fife in Scotland. In the Scottish seat of power they are surprised to find a woman, called in Gaelic, Gruach (Siobhan Redmond). She is the Queen, Lady Macbeth, not dead or mad as in Shakespeare's account but alive and with a 15 year old son (from her marriage to a king before Macbeth) who claims the throne.

The first act of the play sees Siward's negotiations with the forceful Queen and the new King Malcolm, an Anglophile who escaped to England after the death of his father Duncan. Malcolm is weak and duplicitous, vacillating and lackadaisical, but candid for all that. "I will govern entirely in the interests of ME." he says. Siward is a noble man, good, honest and true.

Siward's political solution that Gruach should marry Malcolm and that Gruach's son should be adopted by Malcolm as his heir, while sounding neat, like all compromises pleases neither side. The marriage dance is rudely interrupted by an attack from Gruach's forces and her ear splitting banshee wail heralds much slaughter.

Whilst the first act is about achieving peace the second is about war and reprisals and how the invading army sees their hopes of going home slipping away. As Siward tells Egham (Alex Mann) about the burning of the people alive, Egham comments wryly "It's a bit Scandinavian, isn't it?" Egham had intended to be a monk before he is called upon to carry out the audit of Scottish valuables, a commercial role which he settles into with relish.

The task of identifying Gruach's concealed son and heir goes very wrong when the singular identifying tattoo of three snakes devouring a moon is found on all the boys. Even after the death of the 15 year olds, Gruach claims there is another heir, a baby. This information combined with the warring clans starts to make Siward's task impossible and he is forced to compromise his earlier principles. Is this the inevitability of a war fought over mountainous territory with pockets of insurgency?

Siobhan Redmond witing witch Queen, some of her lines in Gaelic and as good a strategist as any of the men. Her final threat to send raiding parties across the border into Siward's Northumberland seems likely to happen. I liked too Jonny Phillips' Siward with his qualities of leadership and integrity contrasting with Brian Ferguson's brilliantly shallow and pragmatic Malcolm. But concentrating on these main characters, leaves out the undoubted strength of the debut performances from young actors, some of whom are still in training at drama school, playing the English soldiers and speaking David Greig's beautifully descriptive, resonating narratives.

Roxana Silbert gives us a powerfully tight production set on the granite stage with a flight of steps dominated by a large Ionian Cross. David Greig's script may be studied to pick up on the clever references back to Shakespeare's Macbeth for instance when Gruach shows Siward her open but spotless hands!

The Boy Soldier (Sam Swann) asks the perpetual question, "Why are we here? Why are we here? Why are we here?"

Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous locations. To subscribe, E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country.
Dunsinane
Written by David Greig
Directed by Roxana Silbert

Starring: Brian Ferguson, Jonny Phillips, Siobhan Redmond
With: Jacob Anderson, Lisa Hogg, Joshua Jenkins, Tony McGeever, Alex Mann, Mairi Morrison, Daniel Rose, Ewan Stewart, Sam Swann
English Army: Michael Amaning, Martin Bassindale, Joshua Campbell, Benjamin Cawley, Cass Chaplin, Rasfan Haval, Jeremy Irvine, Malachi Kirby, Christian Kyriacou, Jay Mair, Hauk Pattison, Tom Ross-Williams
Design: Robert Innes Hopkins
Lighting: Chahine Yavroyan
Music and Sound: Nick Powell
Movement: Anna Morrissey
Fights: Terry King
Running time: Two hours 35 minutes with one interval
Box Office: 020 7722 9301
Booking to 6th March 2010
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 17th February 2010 performance at the Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Hampstead, London NW3 3EU (Tube: Swiss Cottage)

REVIEW FEEDBACK
Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
  • I agree with the review of Dunsinane
  • I disagree with the review of Dunsinane
  • The review made me eager to see Dunsinane
Click on the address link E-mail: esommer@curtainup.com
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V):

Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email . . . also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review.

a list of all book reviews, see our,
VALVESGate valvePRESSURE VALVESGlobe valveCHECK VALVES
London Theatre Tickets
Lion King Tickets
Billy Elliot Tickets
Mighty Boosh Tickets
Mamma Mia Tickets
We Will Rock You Tickets
Theatre Tickets
London Theatre Walks


Peter Ackroyd's  History of London: The Biography



London Sketchbook



tales from shakespeare
Retold by Tina Packer of Shakespeare & Co.
Click image to buy.
Our Review


©Copyright 2010, Elyse Sommer.
Information from this site may not be reproduced in print or online without specific permission from esommer@curtainup.com