Macbeth

August 8th, 1937 — August 9th, 1937


Venue

Princess Theatre, Woolloongabba

Producer

The Brisbane Repertory Theatre Society

Director

Barbara Sisley

Playwright

William Shakespeare

Cast

Leo Guyatt
Marjorie Mant
Tom MacMinn
Stanley Hildebrandt
D.Kellet Cameron
Robert Kelly
Ralph Taylor
Jack Walsh
Colin Turbayne
C.Wanstall
Graham Macdonald
Esther Jones
Mollie Wetherell
W.Williams
Anna Stanley
Eric Louttit
Ronald Cargill
Shand Findlay
Colin Curr
Robert Risson
Gwen Campbell
Patricia Steedman
Nancy Fowles
Vera Tighe
Jack Young
Gordon Marshall
P.Vincent
Betty Weatherlake


'Macbeth' was the play set for Queensland Senior students in 1937, which D.L.Waraker's Telegraph review tells us, was "one of the unselfish reasons for its choice".  The following extract from her review reveals that despite some outstanding individual performances (special praise was given to Leo Guyatt who played Macbeth, Marjorie Mant as Lady Macbeth, and Stanley Hildebrandt as Malcolm), the production, in her opinion, was  overly ambitious for Brisbane Repertory. She wrote:

"In choosing 'Macbeth' for production last night in the Princess Theatre, the Repertory Society proved its courage and desire to be educational rather than its discretion. The play is full of pitfalls even for the most seasoned professionals and by the starkness of its terror and tragedy is rendered not the happiest choice even for clever amatuers who are capable of delighting us in lighter fare. ...

"If last night's performance then, was not one of the society's most successful for the season, we must blame the play's unsuitability rather than the work of the producer or the cast. ... For almost every member of the cast displayed an appreciation of the play's high tragedy, and Miss Barbara Sisley was responsible for an interesting simplicity in effect which smoothly disguised many difficulties in production cleverly overcome."

Extract from 'Macbeth' review by D.L.Waraker in The Telegraph, 6th August 1937.

 

 


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