The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
October 22, 2016
Róisín O’Brien
Company Chordelia’s Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here promises an exploration of Lady Macbeth’s side of the gruesome Scottish tale, as danced by three men. While there are some moments of refined choreography, amplified by an interesting exploration of British Sign Language, overall the piece’s episodic structure fails to provide its audience with a compelling narrative or thematic arc.
The imagery in Shakespeare’s Macbeth has fascinated artists for centuries: the blood smeared hands, the spiral into insatiable ambition, the uncompromising, bare Scottish landscape. All of this is easily evoked in the howling soundscape, coupled with aching violin tracks. The lighting is effectively, if not overly inventively, dim and smoky, while the costumes contain a nice dichotomy of lushness and sparsity.
In Scotland, familiarity with the play is probably more common than in other countries. Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here very much trades on this knowledge of the play’s events, as, while the play is depicted sequentially, its narrative is not explicit to an outside eye. Each ‘event’ of the play tends to be jarringly announced by a new music track. As such, the piece then feels very stop-start and sporadic. Any repetition and variation in the choreography is not foregrounded or driven home enough to provide adequate continuity.
Photo Susan Hay
The dancing itself is mostly very precisely executed, the three men dancing ‘effeminately’ nicely betraying the gender roles we unconsciously adopt. They weave between communicative, menacing hand gestures, to all three of them eerily tiptoeing backwards across the stage. Each dancer has a solo, and it is there we see particular strengths. Jacob Casselden showcases a strong attack across the floor, Thomas Baylis indulges in beautiful leg extensions, while Jack Webb displays a surprising sequence of movements ricocheting through the limbs, the results ending in places you don’t predict.
However, Lady Macbeth: Unsex me here begs the question why there are three versions of Lady Macbeth at all. Their movements are not quite in sync enough to enact complete synchronicity, but neither do they differ enough in these group sections to bring their own individualities fully to the fore. This was the premiere, so perhaps a group confidence needs to emerge and clearer direction given with regard to points of unanimity and difference.
Overall this is a work of exciting beginnings, and talented dancers, but it lacks clear development and drive.
Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here was part of DanceLive16.