David Tennant is tackling his perfect Shakespeare role once again!
Shakespeare plays are some of the best pieces of theatre. My favorite happens to be Macbeth—the Scottish Play, for those superstitious of the play’s legacy. Despite its Scottish heritage, you’re not supposed to perform it with Scottish accents, which is why I’m excited for David Tennant’s return.
The rule in theater is that it’s bad taste to do accents while performing Shakespeare, most likely because Shakespeare’s work is already complicated and adding accents to it would just make it harder for the general audience to understand what’s going on. So instead, most everyone performs Shakespeare using their real accents, and I do think that is fun. But I have longed to see a Scottish actor performing Macbeth as a fully staged production.
Note, I said “fully staged” for a reason. I did see Alan Cumming perform his one-man version of the play when it was on Broadway, and while breathtaking, it isn’t the same as watching two actors as Macbeth and Lady M. The most recent production here in the states featured Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga in the roles, but when I heard that David Tennant was doing it in England, I wanted to see his take on Macbeth so badly.
The Doctor Who actor starred in the Donmar Warehouse production with Cush Jumbo, and now the duo (and the original company) is returning for the West End production!
Can someone fly me out to London so I can see David Tennant in action?
I just love when Scottish actors get to be Scottish
Yes, part of what makes this great is that the Scottish king Macbeth gets to have a Scottish accent. Make my ancestors proud! But I do love when Tennant gets to use his real accent, too, because he so often has to change it for his roles. When he was the Doctor, they wanted to make his accent more “acceptable” to audiences everywhere (and then Peter Capaldi got to be Scottish, along with Ncuti Gatwa).
To be honest, it’d be hard to find a performance of Tennant’s where he isn’t doing an accent outside of his Shakespeare work. So to hear him get to be Scottish and doing so while playing my beloved Scottish king? That’s a dream for me.
Tickets go on sale on September 12.
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