Panto Macbeth
★★★★★ Perfectly absurd
Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16): Mon 19 – Sat 24 Aug 2024
Review by Rebecca Mahar
It’s panto. It’s Macbeth. It’s Panto Macbeth. What more do you want?
With an ensemble comprised of students and recent graduates who presumably have nothing better to do, the Mermaids Performing Arts Fund of St. Andrews University hurl a fifty-minute pantomime version of Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth onto the Fringe stage, like a vulgar No-Fear Shakespeare crossed with traditional panto bits.
Panto Macbeth in rehearsal. Pic: Mermaids.
Written and directed by Mackenzie Galbraith, Panto Macbeth is presented initially as a grand pantomime production of Macbeth by the St. Andrews Pantomime Club by The Acting Director, Buster van der Geest, recently having replaced the former director, who perished in an entirely coincidental boating accident.
Buster’s plans are quickly foiled when it’s pointed out to him that this is the Fringe and they only have a fifty-minute runtime, a tiny cast due to the aforementioned accident taking out much of the club’s membership, and a Macbeth kidnapped from a more traditional production across the courtyard.
Mayhem ensues, with scenes (acts, even) being cut wholesale along with what were apparently many musical numbers, much to the disappointment of the cast, who are repeatedly hustled off the stage by Buster in order to get on with the plot.
cigarette-toting swagger
Panto Macbeth actually does an adequate job of communicating the original story through its express tour of Shakespeare’s play, and Lady Macbeth’s translations of the out-of-place classical Macbeth’s (Sam Morrison, who is working very hard amid a pack of loonies) speeches.
Played by Freddie Lawson with a cigarette-toting swagger reminiscent of the Landlady from Kung Fu Hustle, this panto’s Dame just wants to get on with business— and find spouse number seventeen. Cue audience participation. The witches that summon “spirits” and throw prophesy at Macbeth in a role that is somehow larger than the original despite the abbreviated runtime, are played to bickering-flatmate perfection by Callum Wardman-Browne and his two hand puppets.
Max Freyer plays an entirely too chipper Banquo; the Buttons of the group, he’s the happy-go-lucky children’s friend, despite his inevitable murder. Completing the ensemble is, well, The Ensemble: Finn Bender fills in the rest of the roles who all suspiciously look alike, including a new addition to the script called Igor, because apparently Shakespeare’s 40+ characters weren’t enough.
As irreverent as this review and much more fun for an audience, Panto Macbeth is hilarious, fast-paced, occasionally more than a little stupid, and an all-around excellent time. Oh yes it is!
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval)
Greenside @ Riddles Court (Thistle), 322 Lawnmarket EH1 2PG (Venue 16)
Monday 19 – Saturday 24 August 2024
Daily: 1.50 pm
Details and tickets at: Book here
Instagram: @pantomacbeth
ENDS
