Macbeth: Blood and Bluegrass – theSpace ★★★★

Shakespeare has survived four hundred years because he is stubborn. Give Macbeth to traditionalists in doublets and hose, and it works. Hand it to avant-garde directors armed with video screens and microphones, and it works. Set it among gangsters, politicians, schoolchildren or astronauts, and somehow it still survives. Macbeth: Blood and Bluegrass adds another unlikely location to the list, transplanting the Scottish play into a world of banjos, bourbon and Americana. Against all odds, it works rather well. The New Zealand company The Barden Party begin with the atmosphere of a barn dance rather than a tragedy. The audience is greeted with the energy of a gathering already in full swing, music flowing before Shakespeare has properly entered the room. It immediately lowers the drawbridge. Instead of treating the play as a sacred object behind glass, this production invites everyone to pull up a chair around the fire. That image becomes central to the staging. The company spend much…