Macbeth (2. David Tennant)

This evening we met Gordon, Sheena and Peter at the Monmouth Kitchen for pre-theatre dinner before going to the Donmar Warehouse to see David Tennant in Macbeth. This was our second Macbeth in three weeks, not the way we would have planned it but how could we choose between Ralph Fiennes and David Tennant? We were instructed to wear the headphones plugged in behind each seat. This clever device meant that we could hear two levels of dialogue; that which was publicly spoken and that which was whispered. This totally made sense; after all, why would the Macbeths hatch their evil plans out loud, even in their own castle, rather than murmur them quietly into each other’s ears? It worked very well. David Tennant was, quite simply, brilliant. As James pointed out, he didn’t seem to speak in a stagey way at all, he just spoke the lines so naturally that I would defy anyone even to notice that the language was Shakespearean. The rest of the cast were excellent too, and Cush Jumbo was a subtle, gradually disintegrating Lady Macbeth. The death scene at the end was really poignant, Macbeth showing his old bravery at the last, and again Tennant’s acting was peerless. 
So to summarise my two recent Macbeths; Ralph Fiennes was excellent, but David Tennant was in a class of his own.