Tonight I shall mostly...

[Garp]

be watching this:

http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8821190904113

From the stalls, row W :)

Looking forward to seeing Patrick Stewart doing Shakespeare as he's supposed to be one of the best of his generation.

A review will follow (probably tomorrow)

[Dee]

Patrick Stewart? Awesome :)

Macbeth bored me to tears when I saw it, well I was 15 at the time doing it for my GCSE's, and my bum went numb from the crap wooden seats right at the back :p I have a slighter higher tolerance for these sorts of things now :)

Have fun :)

[Tak]

Excellent :) Can't wait to read your review of it :)

[Mark]

Supposed to be? Is, from what I've seen/heard. Another thing I'd love to see someday (shakespeare doesn't generally do much for me, but when it's acted well, that's another story).

[Lopez]

Patrick Stewart is ace. Enjoy!

[Feek]

Shakespeare walked into a pub, the barman shouted "piss off, you're bard".

[Aitch]

I was tempted by this so I look forward to the review. I have heard good things but it is always good to hear a review by a 'real' person rather than some newspaper critic trying to sound clever.

[Garp]

Hmmm.. I'm struggling to find a way to describe it.

In the words of testpattern: "Oh wow".

Awesome, superb, amazing, delightful, stunning, the list of suitable adjectives is ever growing as I sit here having just got back.

I literally had a back row seat, but then thats what you expect when you buy a ticket only 4 -5 days before the showing.

http://bliss.paulgraydon.co.uk/backrow.jpg

Apologies for the quality, phonecam 4tw!

Despite its appearance from the picture I could see the stage and actors very clearly and have no complaints about it at all.

The telling of the play is superb, seemingly set in an Eastern European country in what I guess to be late 30s - 40s kind of period, I kept expecting to hear references to Stalin and Mother Russia.

There were strong performances all round from the various actors and actresses, some I recognise from other places. Patrick Stewart was as good as I'd been led to believe, and created a supremely believable Macbeth, bringing something to the character that I found missing when I studied it at school, somehow making him more human, and also making his descent into madness and tyranny all that more realistic and yet natural.

However, that said, it was Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth that sent shivers down my spine and presented what was by far the best performance of all.

I'll confess my memory of the script is a little faded with time, I haven't read it in over 10 years and like with most English Lit micro-analysed books, I've done a good job of deliberately forgetting it in all its overly nitpicked detail, and in some regards I'm glad as it allowed me to watch the play with a relatively clear and fresh mind.

I would strongly recommend getting to see this if you can get tickets for it at a reasonable price. As far as I'm concerned that was £42 well spent for a performance I will long remember :)