Lacks any air of mystery, foreboding or darkness: Macbeth, at the Globe, reviewed

Macbeth at the Globe wants to put us at our ease and make us feel comfortable with the play’s arcane world of ghouls, hallucinations and murderous prophecies. Abigail Graham’s up-to-the-minute production offers a few nods to history, like the eagle masks worn by the three witches, but for some reason they speak in dense cockney accents and wear biohazard suits. And they’re all men. The Scottish soldiery favour black body armour like SAS recruits or Metropolitan Police officers. And King Duncan, benefitting from equality legislation, has been transformed into an alpha female: ‘Queen Duncan’, as everyone calls her. She strides on to the battlefield in the opening scene sporting a beautiful cream trouser suit and a salon-perfect ash-blonde hairdo. A puzzling costume for a tribal leader who just spent the day hacking her enemies to pieces with a longsword and a flanged mace.

And it may be incorrect to assume that the early medieval period is too difficult for a modern audience to grasp. The Jacobeans who witnessed the first performance in 1606 were more remote in time from the historic Macbeth (born circa 1005) than we are from the Jacobeans. And if unlettered Londoners in the 17th century could understand history, we should try to emulate them.

But this production won’t let us. The show unfolds like a backstage bitch fight between a group of middle managers at a corporate awards ceremony. When Duncan retreats to Macbeth’s castle, the courtiers tear off their battle fatigues and climb into formal evening wear. The men look trim in their tuxedos and shiny black shoes while the women swish about in designer frocks and stilettos. The visual details jar constantly with Shakespeare’s storyline which requires the characters to commit murders with blades, like teenage thugs. Macbeth looks as slick as James Bond but he can’t kill Duncan with a Walther PPK so he uses a kitchen chopper instead, and he manages to spill a jar of blackcurrant juice all over his dress shirt while he does so.