Rushing Headlong Into the Hurly-Burly
Ben BrantleyJune 6, 2014: Hearts beat fast in the thrilling new Macbeth that has transformed the Park Avenue Armory into a war zone, and every breath starts to feel like a gasp. Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh’s galloping British-born production, which opened on Thursday night with Mr. Branagh in the title role, saturates everyone in it in adrenaline. Make that everyone watching it, as well. This is the summer blockbuster that we wait for every year and too seldom find at the multiplexes, one of those action-packed, spectacle-drenched shows that sweep you right into their fraught, churning worlds and refuse to release you until the lights come up — and maybe not even then. Of course, the dialogue here is a bit richer than that of films inspired by comic books. But it’s also a whole lot tastier, and there’s not a line spoken that doesn’t seem to have grown organically from the wicked hurly-burly on the stage. Once you do catch your breath and can think calmly about what you’ve seen, you’ll realize with how much care and intelligence this production has been assembled. But it’s your viscera that dictate your responses while you’re watching, and you have no alternative but to ride the speeding, jolting juggernaut that is this Macbeth until it finally lets you off after two intermissionless hours.
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