Mixed references notwithstanding, there’s something rotten in the state of Victoria. Not only does this update place Shakespeare’s thorny drama of revenge in a Melbournian gangland setting, there’s something whiffy about the production itself. Director Wright (Romper Stomper), working from an adaptation by writer / actor / producer Hill, attempts a Lhurmanesque revision to contemporise the Bard with signature violence. Weapons blaze amid sensual design when a savage reshaping of royal landscape is placed in the hands of Australia’s upcoming elite. An experiment says Wright, to draw visual theatre into cinema.

For the unfamiliar, King Duncan rewards Macbeth for a job well done – in this case killing rival gangsters. Yet his son Malcolm is rewarded doubly, action that gives Macbeth pause for vengeful thought. Egged on by his scheming wife, he offs Duncan, blames Malcolm and takes over the business. When witches visit, madness takes control and before you can say out damn spot, Macbeth is fighting on all fronts.

Wright saturates his production in a bold, blood-soaked aesthetic. He’s out to shock with a full-frontal assault that has little time for subtlety. As carnage takes hold, the candle-lit, velvet-heavy, neo-gothic design evokes the play’s origin but makes little sense in its contemporary setting. This good-looking but highly theatrical frame is underlined by good-looking yet over-bright, often hysterical, performances. Where Lhurman found time for the essence of the play, Wright all but discards it, busy distracting us from the failings of his cast with guns, blood, noise and more blood. Macbeth simply degenerates into a Hollywood shootout - jumbled and unconvincing – as the game experiment fails.

// COLIN FRASER