Ralph Fiennes as Macbeth
And when will he play Lear?
I once saw Ralph Fiennes when I was walking to a meeting of the Biographers’ Club in Bedford Square. A man with a backpack walked past me and as I glanced at his face - into his eyes - I saw with surprise that it was Fiennes. I was pretty sure that I had correctly identified him because a) I am a super-recogniser and b) his blue eyes seemed to say (wearily): “Yes, yes, I am Ralph Fiennes”. And then he was gone.
Just lately I’ve encountered Fiennes quite a bit on the stage and screen. I saw him in Simon Godwin’s Macbeth in London in 2024. I also saw the production of As You Like It he directed in Bath last summer - with Harriet Walter as Jacques (see below) - and I watched him as Antony in Godwin’s 2018 production of Antony and Cleopatra, which I streamed via the National Theatre at Home website.
Tomorrow, Fiennes makes his directorial debut in an opera - a production of Eugene Onegin at Palais Garnier in Paris - which I sadly won’t be seeing, but I’ll be watching with interest to see what people think of it.
While Fiennes is undoubtedly one of our greatest actor-directors, is he one of our greatest Shakespearean actors? I’m still pondering this and waiting for him to do King Lear (surely Godwin can pull something out of the bag for us?)
Meanwhile, my review of his Macbeth is below.
I’m just back from the blasted heath - Canada Water, London - to see Simon Godwin’s production of Macbeth. It took place in a gigantic warehouse, where audiences filed past a burnt-out car in an imaginary war-torn city, and the sound of helicopters whirred overhead. The seats were packed so closely together, I could feel the man behind me sighing on the back of my neck.
Overall I liked the boldness of it – no black sets with actors dressed in black here: Godwin and cast wants us to have a visceral experience. The witches are three female refugees from a nameless conflict, and Ralph Fiennes’ Macbeth appears in army fatigues and flak jacket, fresh from the war zone.
There’s a sense in his performance that Shakespeare’s tyrant could, actually, be any of us. That’s surely part of Shakespeare’s conception – Macbeth is an Everyman, and that’s what makes him so horrifying. It was a pleasure to see the character played with subtlety and clarity of speech. Fiennes brought depth to the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech – not simply the conclusion of a psychopathic killer, but a kind of unravelling of grief for his lost wife – a sense that they were both part of a whole, and now, without her, what was the point of going on? Here was a man who had achieved his ambitions at enormous cost, and found them turning to ash in his hands.
Indira Varma was also excellent as a glamorous, brittle Lady Macbeth – the driving force of the action. Like Fiennes, she brought normality to the role – busily wiping blood off things as if tidying up the house after a particularly wild party. It was not really a production where the idea of demonic possession was taken seriously, but rather, the overriding impression was: “There but for the grace of God go I”.
The rest of the cast were strong and special mention must be made of Ben Turner as Macduff. The scene where he is told of the murder of his wife and children brought tears to my eyes – instead of the usual fury and shouting, we had long pauses and a sense of delayed shock that was quietly heartbreaking.
Subtlety and realism is, in fact, the tenor of the whole production. If you like high-energy Macbeths you might be disappointed, but Fiennes’ conception of the character is more of a slow-burn thing. That’s not to say that Godwin avoided the play’s gorier aspects – it was a production drenched in blood and the lighting and pyrotechnic effects were excellent – just that it strove to reveal the complex psychology of those who “make our faces vizards to our hearts, / Disguising what they are”.
You can watch this production via National Theatre at Home (subscribers only) »
Had the great joy of seeing the late Anthony Sher as Lear in London (RSC) a decade ago. Paapa Essiedu as Edmund.
Do you have a favorite Macbeth movie?