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Twelfth Night/Macbeth
The world probably didn't need another version of the Scottish play, especially with a fairly definitive version recently released by A&E. This 1998 made-for-British-television version stars Sean Pertwee as the titular character and Greta Scacci as his wife, and is set in a modern-day world that is somewhere between Mad Max and the ghetto.
The story is all-too-familiar; MacBeth kills the king, becomes the king, and then goes insane. So does his wife.
Moving the story to modern day does nothing for anyone involved. It says nothing about modern society (mainly because the characters inhabit a world without anything resembling a government) and manages to clash with the play in several places, the most noticeable being the banquet dinner when MacBeth first starts to lose the plot. The clash of cultures there is enough to take the viewer directly out of the story.
In addition, without coming off as too much of a purist, the 88-minute running time is just not long enough to capture the entire breadth of the play. There is enough missing here for the fans of the play to be annoyed.
Finally, the budgetary drawbacks become very apparent during some key sequences, including a ridiculously cheesy computer graphic hallucination late in the film. If a producer knows that the film (s)he is working on does not have the money for top of the line effects, then maybe (s)he should plan on doing without said effects.
Fans of Brit-coms will be happy, though, to see Jack Davenport and Richard Coyle of the BBC version (you know, the good one) of "Coupling."
Twelfth Night
One of Shakespeare's better comedies, this production of Twelfth Night manages to miss the lighter tone of the piece in search of some sort of modern-day "cool" attitude. The transitions are infused with a bass-driven score, there is an unnatural intensity from several of the actors and even the good guys spend a lot of time wearing sunglasses.
In modern-day England, a young woman named Viola (played magnificently by Parminder Nagra of Bend it Like Beckham fame) poses as a servant boy to win the favor of a Duke. But she is roped into attempting to woo another woman on his behalf.
While setting the play in modern England was not as distracting here as the time shift was in MacBeth, the budgetary restraints became more distracting, especially in scenes involving the Duke's "patio," which clearly faced a blue or green screen "beach." Classical architecture is reduced to obvious plaster knock-off jobs.
Shakespeare purists will be happy to note that teleplay writer Andrew Bannerman did a better job truncating Twelfth Night. Nothing of much consequence is cut, and the 100-minute running time seems just right.
The multicultural cast is pitch-perfect throughout, with Ronny Jhutti and Chiwetel Ejiofor both standing out as Sebastian and Duke Orsino, respectively.
The DVD
Video:
MacBeth is presented in a non-anamorphic 1.66:1 aspect ratio, while Twelfth Night is presented in anamophic 1.78:1. The colors and focus on both are a little soft, but otherwise is acceptable. Outdoor scenes lack definition the most.
Audio:
Both films provide respectable, though not exiting 2.0 stereo. The sound is solid in most places, though the thumping backbeat of Twelfth Night sometimes fights with dialogue, especially in inner monologue moments.
Extras:
Nothing.
Final Thoughts:
Sue Pritchard, producer of MacBeth, sums up the modus operandi of this two disc collection rightly in the liner notes: "The central narrative is as strong and exciting as any popular TV drama today, and [our goal is] to encourage a broader interest in Shakespeare's work."
These two productions exist for one reason - to get younger viewers (high school age, I suspect) interested in a century's-dead playwright. For purists, there are better productions of both available. For those looking for more accessible Shakespeare, Twelfth Night succeeds modestly.
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