#and cush jumbo!! amazing

[fellshish]

Blood-covered david tennant anyone?

[ingravinoveritas]

Loving this very pretty poster for the upcoming West End run of Macbeth...

[rubysunnday]

i’ve seen david tennant act in front of my very eyes today and my word he’s amazing

[shakespearenews]

It is Tennant who then produces, with a flourish, the key question about the Macbeths: “Why do they decide to commit a crime? What is the fatal flaw that allows them to think that’s OK? I don’t know that they, as characters, would even know. Has the loss of a child destabilised their morality?” In preparation, Tennant and Jumbo have been researching post-traumatic stress disorder. “PTSD is a modern way of understanding something that’s always been there,” suggests Tennant – and the Macbeths are traumatised three times over by battle, bereavement and murder. “We’ve looked at postpartum psychosis as well,” Jumbo adds. They have been amazed at how the findings of modern experts “track within the play”. Tennant marvels aloud: “What can Shakespeare’s own research process have been?” Jumbo reminds him that Shakespeare, like the Macbeths, lost a child. She relishes the play’s “contemporary vibe which means it’s something my 14-year-old niece will want to see. Even though you know the ending, you don’t want it to go there. It’s exciting to play that as well as to watch it.”

[ineffably-smote]

Macbeth, David Tennant - A very subjective, spoiler and emotion filled review

Just walking out of seing Macbeth at the Donmar and I have Feelings. Unsurprisingly, I primarily went to see it because David Tennant was in it. I love the play, big fan of Shakespeare but the trip to London was most certainly motivated by a very specific actor. Hence the highly subjective review. Fortunately, I also happen to quite like Macbeth. We studied it at school, and it holds a special place in my heart (back then, Hamlet was my favourite Shakespeare play but honestly, after tonight, I’m not so sure anymore. Anyway, I digress). It was my first time actually seeing an actor I’m a fan of in real life, so obviously the entire time my brain was just going oh my god that’s David Tennant oh my god that’s David Tennant like I actually could not comprehend it. The man I’ve spent hours staring at on a little screen is suddenly real, and right there. So yeah, that took me a hot second.

(Excuse the piss poor image quality, I took this with shaky hands without looking or bothering to focus the cam)

The Staging

Still starstruck and a bit dazed, one thing really really stood out to me: the staging. It was so, so good. I knew it was going to be minimal from the pictures I had seen, and it was, but it was also so insanely real. There were barely any decorations, and half the cast and the musicians were hidden behind a glass screen doing background noises and gestures. From where I was sitting I could not see them much, but could definitely hear them which added to the overall atmosphere. The stage was also really tiny, and the play benefitted incredibly from it. All the action was happening in one tight space that had been put to use incredibly well, particularly the banquet scene but I’ll come back to that because it deserves its own paragraph.

The way they chose to do the soliloquies was so fitting - all the actors start to move in slow motion - everyone else slowing down and just the characters speaking moving was so good, it made sense.

The Headphones

I’m a bit mixed about the headphones. They were amazing for the vibes, we could hear whispers and they really heightened some of the emotional speeches in the play - because when someone is struggling with guilt and trauma it makes sense for them to be mumbling rather than yelling. So that was really great. However, especially in the scenes where the actors where yelling/ loud I preferred to take them off a bit cause it felt more real that way. I’m so used to hearing actors voice on recordings, it does hit different when you can hear them for real. But, as I said, personal preference and that’s what’s nice, you can take them on and off as much as you want.

Famous Speeches

There were three speeches I was quite interested to see how they were going to be adapted - scorpions and dagger for Macbeth, and out damned spot for Lady Macbeth. These are classic, everyone knows the words, the plot but they managed to make it feel real in a new and touching way. I think here the headphones were quite helpful because they allowed the actors to actually whisper parts of those lines. They were so subtle, so embedded in the text they felt so natural which imbued them with all their power. I saw in a review Cush Jumbo’s out damned spot speech be described as “haunting”, and I wholeheartedly agree.

The Macbeths

I didn’t like Macbeth, the character, very much when I first learnt about him. His actions didn’t make sense to me, I couldn’t quite comprehend in my 21st century little brain how he went from I’m super loyal to the King to I will freely murder children for shits and giggles. But now, now I understand. It makes sense, it’s believable. And that’s a mix of the acting choices and teh overall setting. Like the opening scene, instead of presenting Macbeth as a glorious hero, he is presented to us as a traumatised hero. He spends the first few minutes washing the blood of his clothes, haunted by noises from the battlefield. And that sets the themes quite nicely, not ambition, as Tennant specified in an interview, but guilt and trauma. There are so many ways to interpret Shakespeare, that’s the beauty of it, and I think this version of Macbeth just resonated more with me (maybe because ambition I don’t quite understand but guilt I am intimately familiar with? Or maybe because it was David Tennant? I don’t know, probably a bit of both). Tennant delivers a convincing Macbeth. Yes, you can see his ambitions play out, but also his fears, his guilt, and that makes him into a complex three dimensional character that you want to understand.

And I absolutely loved this version of Lady Macbeth. Not just a powerful woman who bullies her husband into become an evil murderer (because again, here we can see traces of that in Macbeth from the start), but an ambition woman in love, with her husband, with power, and not quite healed from the trauma of loosing her child. Again another review said she is more of an enabler than a manipulator and I quite liked that description.

My Favourite Scenes

God the banquet scene. The one with the ghost of Banquo. An absolute masterpiece. I did not expect that scene to hit that hard. It was raw, it was powerful and even if Tennant was facing away from where I was sitting, even without seeing his face I could feel the emotion, the whole audience could. In a video essay on Tennant, @davidtennantgenderenvy highlighted how in almost every role he played, there is it is the classic Tennant breakdown moment, and breakdown moment it was. Not with tears, not as expressive as he sometime is but just enough for a King trying to hold it together but fear and guilt breaking through. I was absolutely overwhelmed and it was beautiful. The set up for the scene was amazing too - there were ceilidh, celebrations, I adored the contrast between these fast pasted scenes and guilt ridden whispers of the couple. And the way everyone sat down around the stage and suddenly it looked like a banquet table ? Just perfect.

Another really cool moment, less on the emotional side but more on the visuals was when Macbeth goes to get the second prophecy from the witches. Almost the whole cast is there, running around, moving, almost dancing and it gives the whole thing a mystical atmosphere. There’s smoke, Macbeth falls, is carried up high Jesus style, cowers, rises, it’s so busy and insane all the while there are whispers and whispers in the headphones - it manages perfectly to feel like a mystical moment.

Descent Into Madness & other cool things

For Macbeth, having the kid running around scene after scene, haunting him, and then scene where he kills him - GOD it’s powerful. Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness was so well characterised, I also loved the glass on the background that locked away some of the cast. Just wild. The actor that played Malcom actor was also really cool, and Macduff and Ross, big fan of all of them.

Overall I am overwhelmed with emotions. Tennant is truly one of my favourite actors - from Good Omens to Staged, Jessica Jones, even Harry Potter but also Mad to be Normal, Nativty, There She Goes, Around the World in 80 days, Doctor Who (god I’ve started a list, never start lists cause you’ll forget people) and so, so many more, I was truly beside myself with excitement and expectations for tonight. And it did not disappoint. I do not want to leave the theatre and I pray they release a recording of this because I want it imprinted on my soul.

(Side note: I don’t know how to use tumblr very well, for some reason whenever I try to reply to ppl it posts from my other blog? Anyway @raquel-and-sergio is in fact me)

[thealogie]

Cush jumbo is amazing. "I think lady Macbeth does a murder just bc she wants to do a project with her husband :) it's lilke a couples retreat" she might be on Sheen & dt's level of character understander

THAT IS LITERALLY WHAT I THOUGHT I was like wow you are in the club of all time great character understanders!!

[lydiablackblade]

Such an amazing 3 days are behind me. I still can't believe it happened to me. Because I finally saw Macbeth at the Donmar not once but twice! Because I spotted David sneaking into the theater once. Because Cush Jumbo walked by 10 cm next to me. Because I took pictures with two members of the company. Because I got to know fantastic and kind people while queuing and hopefully got a friend in the end.

The play was such an intense experience, I am still shivering when I think of it. The intimacy, being so near to the stage, to really see every tiny expression on the actor' s face, the magical sound technique, the imaginary use of dark and light, the use of only the very few of colours, everything was black, white or grey, so when you saw the shiny, shimmering red of blood, BLOOD, blood was everywhere, on the hands, on the clothes, on the floor, it was so shocking, so intense, you couldn't get your eyes off of it, and the music, oh my good, the Music, I want that OST right now, and when Macbeth whispered into the ears of Lady Macbeth "Oh, full of scorpions is my mind" you really, you absolutely was able to look into that sick, cracked mind tortured by inner demons, David is really the man of delivering one-lines that makes you feel utterly devastated.

So I miraculously secured a ticket online for the Thursday matinee a week before. But because there's no flight back to home on Friday, I decided to extend until Sunday morning.

This is where I sat for the first time

I met a girl, who sat next to me, she was so excited and enthusiastic, after the play we chatted for a while about the play, David, Good Omens... Turned out we are in the same subred 😃 Actually it was a good thing I was already familiar with the play, because I could explain some things which she couldn't catch up with the plot, and as many of the actors played multiple roles, it was a bit confusing even for me.

On Friday I spent my time in museums and walks, and headed to Donmar to meet my new acquaintance in the queue before I was attending another play (Mirror with Jonny Lee Miller, very good!) because she really felt the vibe, and spent the day queuing, and while we were chatting we spotted David for 3 seconds before he entered the theater! We don't know how he manifested before the door, really. Magic. Also he wore a big coat, scarf, and baseball hat. We just had time to say "it's him" then he's gone. My acquaintance eventually got in for the second time because she managed to get a daily standing ticket - and still spent the day in queue. So crazy!

On Saturday morning I visited more filming locations then headed to Donmar. The queue was manageable, not too many people before me, and I had a really good gut feeling about it, so I stayed. When no one from the queue was let in to the last matinee, I was a bit worried, but actually I didn't have any other plans, so I stayed.

While we were waiting for the matinee, the actors started to arrive and I recognized two of them. So when they came out from the coffee I asked them if I could take pictures and they said yes! They seemed to be glad, actually.

Jatinder Singh Randhawa and Noof Ousellam

As the time of the last performance came closer and closer and they didn't let in people, I started to give up. After a while slowly they let in 3-4 people, but the time was about to come up. What gave us hope is that one of the staff members started to walk by the queue, counting and asking people if they are alone or with a group. And just before 5 minutes to the play, they let 8-10 people in! It was unbelievable, never ever happened before! It was about 15 people who finally got in from the queue! I witnessed it happen to 5 people before, and according to the queue rumor it was 7 at max earlier. Now 15! And I got a much better seat than on Thursday, I sat next to the passage, the company members were so close to me! Cush Jumbo was so close to me I felt her fragrance!

And the final curtain call was so exciting, the audience went wild, the cast members were so freed and glad!

With the guy who stood behind me in the queue and we were seated together, we found out we are both Good Omens fans, so we ended up in a restaurant in Chinatown shouting for 2 hours about Good Omens, theater, Shakespeare and books and still in touch 😁

I didn't take pictures during the curtain call, but:

This video was taken almost from where I sat.

This video was taken opposite to me, I am on the recording 😉 Thanks to @his-porous-membrane

[four20peacefrogs]

Does anyone know if they filmed Macbeth with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo at Donmar? I’m hearing conflicting things. The davidtennantontwitter website says it was recorded on 11 January and Donmar did make a post that day about there not being a public performance. I don’t if I’m reading too much into the word “public.” I’ve never wanted to see something this much, to the point it literally hurts. If they’re not recording it, I want to know who made that incredibly stupid decision. I would pay far more to watch it even streaming one time than the people that got to see it live did.

Not to mention that it’s a crime more plays and musicals aren’t recorded. So few people actually have access to real arts and culture, a lot of it being geography based. Plus the fact that it only lives in the minds of a select few and then it’s gone. Amazing stage acting needs to be preserved for future generations as well. With recording technology these days, there’s no reason these things shouldn’t be recorded.

[denimbex1986]

“I don’t remember ever not thinking I was going to be an actor,” says Cush Jumbo. We’re meeting to talk about her new role in Shakespeare’s legendary psychological drama, Macbeth, in which she will star opposite David Tennant. Has she always wanted to act, I ask? “This is just what I do – I’m not that good at anything else.”

When it comes to Jumbo, “good” is an understatement. The star of The Good Wife has played many formidable stage roles, appearing in Phyllida Lloyd’s groundbreaking, all-female version of Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012, She Stoops to Conquer in the same year at the Olivier Theatre, and opposite Hugh Jackman in The River on Broadway – to name a few. A personal favourite for me was her star turn as the titular role in Hamlet at the Young Vic two years ago, which stopped me in my tracks.

But it was when Jumbo decided to not just act but create – writing and starring in Josephine and I, a play about the jazz sensation, political activist and international icon Josephine Baker, in 2015 – that she garnered real, critical acclaim. Josephine and I catapulted Jumbo towards scoring the iconic, whip-smart female role she has now undertaken: Lady Macbeth.

Despite being offered the role several times, Jumbo didn’t feel the set-up was right – until now. “One of the biggest things I’ve learnt over the last 10 years is: don’t play opposite a man, if you’re not sure whether that man is going to mess with your mental health,” she tells me. But the right timing, the safety net of acting opposite Tennant (a close friend) and the vision of director Max Webster has been a magic combination, giving her the confidence to take on this venerated role.

In this production, Webster has chosen to put the marriage at the centre. “He believes Macbeth is a play about a couple suffering with psychosis after losing a child,” says Jumbo. In order to create a sense of intimacy, the production employs the use of headphones, through which the audience experiences binaural technology that creates an intense and unnerving 3D sound world. I’m excited to see how this technique might help to amplify the sense of inner monologue that Shakespeare is so good at creating.

Lady Macbeth and Jumbo are alike in one sense, at least: they both want to be heard. You could call this serendipity, but Jumbo thinks of it more as destiny: “It’s quite amazing how the universe gives you things when you need them,” she says. Jumbo’s ambition with her performance is to change perspectives of this much-maligned anti-heroine. “Her name has been dragged through the mud,” she explains. “If she were male, she would’ve been seen as a flawed hero.” She’s determined to give Lady Macbeth’s character new meaning, and to prove her as one of Shakespeare’s smartest creations.

Jumbo is looking forward to a busy period, Macbeth aside. She has demonstrated her entrepreneurial spirit with Criminal Record, an eight-episode crime thriller that she pitched, co-executively produced and will star in, which will debut on Apple TV+ in January 2024. It’s an exciting time for the actor – and there’s no doubt that, both on stage and screen, Jumbo is one to watch.'

[queer-is-the-universe]

So i went to the Mamma Mia premiere yesterday and kinda run into Cush Jumbo 😂😍

[juliaanoia]

I'm watching Deadwater Fell to ease the pain of not being able to watch Broadchurch for the first time again. So far, so good. I like it. It's in Scottland, wich is a plus. Beautiful landscape and accents- I miss Olivia Colman though. But I like all the actors, very good performances. Cush Jumbo is amazing. And I almost cheered as Jess put in her statement and told the truth instead of being all secretive and lying like people normally do on shows like this. The case is really rough (house fire, dead kids) which makes this difficult to watch at times. But the mystery is good, I've no idea how it's going to turn out and it's been a long time since I got sucked in like that by a procedural show. I might binge the rest today. However, my main take away: I find it really hard to watch David Tennant play assholes, I just find him so likeable that seeing him being a manipulative bastard really makes me uncomfortable lol It's like the time I watched Criminal

[mondfahrt]

I have so many shows on my watchlist and yet, here I am, rewatching The Good Fight. And thirsting over Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo and Rose Leslie. Aaahhhh they're all so amazing <3

[insanityclause]

Avengers star Tom Hiddleston is in the running to be named best actor at this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards, five years after first winning the prize.

The actor, who triumphed in 2014 for Coriolanus, is shortlisted for his performance in the revival of Pinter’s love triangle drama Betrayal at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

Other big names whose talents could be rewarded at the event, held in association with Michael Kors, include Hiddleston’s fellow Marvel star Hayley Atwell, Sheridan Smith, Andrew Scott and Dame Maggie Smith.

Suits star Wendell Pierce is on the shortlist for best actor, given in partnership with the Ambassador Theatre Group, for his performance as Willy Loman in Death Of A Salesman. It opened in the West End last week after a run at the Young Vic. Completing the line-up for best actor are K. Todd Freeman and Francis Guinan, who both appeared in Downstate at the National Theatre, and Scott, who impressed the critics in a gender-switched version of Noel Coward’s autobiographical comedy Present Laughter at the Old Vic. Atwell and Dame Maggie are among those on the best actress shortlist, for their performances in Ibsen’s political drama Rosmersholm at the Duke Of York’s Theatre and one-woman show A German Life at the Bridge Theatre respectively.

The other contenders for the Natasha Richardson award for best actress, given in partnership with Christian Louboutin, are Cecilia Noble, who is shortlisted for performances at the National in Downstate and Faith, Hope And Charity, Juliet Stevenson for The Doctor at the Almeida and Anjana Vasan for A Doll’s House at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Smith’s role in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat sees her shortlisted for best musical performance with Anne-Marie Duff in Sweet Charity and Andy Nyman in Trevor Nunn’s revival of Fiddler On The Roof.

Evening Standard Editor George Osborne said: “The London theatre scene continues to thrive and the Evening Standard Theatre Awards recognises and celebrates the talent from the rising stars of tomorrow to best directors and actresses.

“There have been so many incredible theatre performances this year and we look forward to the awards ceremony to unveil the outstanding achievements.”

This year also sees a celebration of female writers, with work by Caryl Churchill, debbie tucker green and Lynn Nottage among the contenders for best play, given in partnership with Chanel, along with Downstate by Bruce Norris.

Three women will also compete for the Charles Wintour Award for most promising playwright, named after this newspaper’s former editor, with nominations for Zoe Cooper, Yasmin Joseph and Jasmine Lee-Jones along with Ross Willis. Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell are shortlisted for the Milton Shulman Award for best director, named after the Standard’s celebrated former theatre critic, for Death Of A Salesman.

Also in the running is Jamie Lloyd for his revival of Betrayal and Robert Icke with two productions at the Almeida, The Doctor and The Wild Duck. The shortlist for the emerging talent award, in partnership with Access Entertainment, is made up of Shiloh Coke, Grace Molony, Bobby Stallwood and Laurie Kynaston.

The shortlist for the best design award, in partnership with Michael Kors, is made up of Appropriate at the Donmar Warehouse, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge and the Old Vic’s A Very Expensive Poison.

The winners will be announced on November 24 at a ceremony at the London Coliseum hosted by the Standard’s proprietor Evgeny Lebedev with co-hosts Dame Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue, acting stars Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory and this year’s presenter Cush Jumbo.

Last year’s event was dominated by the National, with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo taking the top acting prizes for their roles in Antony And Cleopatra.

The 65th Evening Standard Theatre Awards, in association with Michael Kors, take place on November 24.  standard.co.uk/theatreawards  #ESTheatreAwards

[clairesighs]

have to say this week’s ep of the good fight is just a masterpiece. I feel like the writing this season has gotten even better. 

like melania?!! amazing. and whenever cush jumbo gets a meatier storyline, she just kills it.

[thealogie]

Don't want to reawaken the macbeth fixation but I saw a video of the macbeth cast and had a question. From your reviews I know that David Tennant was at his best and Cush Jumbo was brilliant, but you've also spoken about how amazing the rest of the cast was. What I want to know is was the company as a whole up to the "this is a legendary performance of Macbeth" level or were they just really fucking good?

It was genuinely a legendary performance of Macbeth. Sometimes it’s just magic in that the whole cast just has chemistry and is operating on the same rhythm. There will be poems and ballads about it

[prettydollshai]

Stay Close Thoughts

Stay close the 8 episode series on netflix dropped on december 31st. It follows Megan shaw a woman trying to escape her past. I enjoyed this series, I thought it was cool and Cush Jumbo was a great choice for the lead. I find it ironic that in her former life her ex-boyfriend Ray covered up a murder for her and in her current life she got her husband do accidental murder. I would have liked to know more about the two hired killers, they were really funny and they had a cool aesthetic. Overall I enjoyed this series, it's amazing that they chose a black family to lead this show hopefully we get more in the future if anyone has recs let me know!