A TOPSY-TURVY version of Macbeth, Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett is on at the Phoenix Theatre, Ross-on-Wye, until Saturday, September 25th.
Most ably directed by Richard Mayo, it has all the Shakesperean characters with a very different plot. Shakespeare purists as well as Terry Pratchett fans will want to see it for its entertainment value.
The three Wyrd Sisters, or witches, played by Judith Dredge, Jean Harding and Rebecca Ball, keep the humour running together with the energetic Fool, James Lee-Hynes.
Loraine Worrall, the dictatorial Duchess, fully uses her rich voice and has the audience cowering as much as her neurotic Duke, Simon DeVay. It was a pity the amplified voices of Death and Demon were distorted. There are 34 parts and congratulations should go to those acting from four to six parts each but without being recognised as a guard who had minutes before appeared as a robber.
There are also 27 scenes to add to the fun. The stage at the Phoenix Theatre is small and perhaps 27 scene changes were just too many as the setting and striking of each broke the continuity as did delay in lighting the characters once they were in place. The sound effects and the lighting were extremely complicated as was every aspect of this production and with the closing and opening of not one but two sets of curtains the whole thing was a feat of engineering.
Catch it if you can.