DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Once again, Shakespeare Theatre Company needs to be commended for bringing to Washington, DC, the nation's capital, a powerful drama that sheds a theatrical spotlight on some of the most important issues of our time: the cycles of violence that plague our world, the cruel dynamic between the occupiers and the occupied, and the senseless idea that it would ever become "necessary to destroy the town to save it.""
MetroWeekly - Highly Recommended
"...Greig’s exploration of these themes within his narrative is not the problem, but rather the psychological transitions and balance of the piece, particularly as they relate to Siward. In the first act, he is revealed as a hardened soldier, but also, it would seem, a man of principle and intelligence. When a gently compelling connection arises between Siward, who has no family waiting from him in England, and the mysteriously self-possessed Gruach, it is an attractive riff on the original play. It also raises intriguing possibilities: will Gruach manipulate Siward as she did Macbeth? Or will we learn there is another side to her story?"
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...Director Roxana Silbert masterfully controls both the big picture of armies and the intimate scenes among the soldiers and between parents and children. Robert Innes Hopkins' simple set uses a rough set of stone stairs and a large Celtic cross to represent the vastness of battlefields and castles. Three musicians (cello, guitar, percussion) stand just offstage, maintaining power and tension through hard-edged music composed by Nick Powell."
The Georgetowner - Recommended
"...Sioibhan Redmond has played this role a lot on other tours, but she never seems anything less than electric and fresh. Gruach is a witch of sorts. While she has forceful sex appeal, she also is a purveyor of curses that appeal real in the yelling and saying, especially at plays end. Against that kind of power, Darrell D'Silva as Siward is all sharp edges, like a battering ram, his white hair making him at times look like a soldier as prophet. He is a straight-ahead man who gets lost in a thicket of blood. His soldiers want to go home-some of them brave, some of them not, some of them masters of the first chance like the wily Egham, a kind of medieval Milo Milenbender, some of them awe-struck like the everyman boy soldier played with wide-eyed wonder by Tom Gill."
MD Theatre Guide - Recommended
"...Macbeth may have ended on a somewhat positive note-the tyrant has been conquered, his reign of terror at an end-but for Macbeth's country the story is not over, and the cast of Dunsinane demonstrates this with unparalleled skill. Siobhan Redmond owns every scene she's in, dominating the stage with a queenly bearing and fiery determination. She serves as a stark contrast to D'Silva's Siward, whose cruelty mounts as his failures do. Every moment of the production feels focused and coherent, with an excellent combination of comedic and dramatic timing, a testament to both an excellent cast and Roxana Silbert's phenomenal direction. Live music, with a Celtic rock refrain, serves to create as much atmosphere as Robert Innes Hopkins's somewhat simple but powerful set."
DCTheatreScene - Recommended
he question of the year for theatre wonks has been answered: Does the sequel hold up to the original? We’ve waited a long time for this particular answer — for more than four hundred years. That’s even longer than anyone’s waited for the follow-up from Harper Lee. With the opening on Tuesday night of the Washington premiere of Dunsinane, David Greig’s sequel to William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, presented at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall in a co-production of The National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Shakespeare Company, the question now has an answer.
