Macbeth presented by National Theatre (review)

According to the program, the setting was "Now, after a civil war," but the world of this play looked more like it had endured an apocalypse. Copious gore was added at every possible opportunity, and some moments were so unnecessarily crass that I passed through horror into incredulous laughter, as when one of the witches delivered a prophecy while swinging a plastic baby doll around by its umbilical cord, or when Lady Macduff 's murdered children were presented to her in two plastic shopping bags. Without a clear social order it was harder to make sense of the supporting roles, with the exception of Kevin Harvey's warm and jovial Banquo, whose friendship with Macbeth felt richly weighted with shared history.