| ::Macbeth – The Inside Story – an Interview with Sean |
| Autumn 2002 It’s a role he’s been thinking about for some time now. “It’s impossible to have an overview of Macbeth,” he explains, “because everything the man does, he does instantly. He lives completely and totally in the moment and then he suffers for it. His imagination races, he begins hallucinating and doesn’t sleep for days. I love the juxtaposition of all these really strong emotions – the wild imagination, the massive mood swings, the ambition, the guilt and remorse – they’re all thrown into a pot and together it’s quite a potent brew.” He stops himself mid-flow, laughing his cracking laugh, acknowledging his inadvertent lapse into an appropriate witch-like metaphor. “It’s a part I suppose deep down I’ve always wanted to play, but until recently I didn’t dare to imagine it might be possible.” Of the production itself, Sean says in an interview with The Theatregoer The new production, directed by Ed Hall and co-starring Samantha Bond as Lady Macbeth, is set against a backdrop of a ‘non-specific war-torn republic’. “It’s somewhat similar to Kosovo, with various warlords vying for position, and it’s quite an ambivalent style with not much space for ornamant and indulgence.” Because it’s a ‘timeless’ production as opposed to something incongruously modern, it’s more swords and leather jackets than guns and Armani suits. “The set is also very interesting and adds to the claustrophobia that the play dwells in,” says Sean. Sean won’t be adopting a Scottish voice for Macbeth. “Because the play itself is timeless and the location isn’t placeable, I think it should be the same with the voice. There are qualities in a northern accent that are quite similar to a Scottish one in that it is very strong, very flat and powerful, and I don’t want to lose those particular elements of the dialect. I just want to do something unobtrusive that isn’t distracting |
| Source of this article : The Ambassadors Theatre Group Magazine |