Macbeth (2014)- Entertainment Weekly

Making his New York acting debut in a visually stunning production of Macbeth that he codirects with Rob Ashford, Kenneth Branagh plays the Scottish king-slayer as an action hero who chases headlong into battle and only pauses to consider the consequences of his actions afterward, to undeniably tragic effect. It’s a bold interpretation that suits a production that unfolds at a furious clip — and places the audience just inches from the action. Theatergoers enter NYC’s cavernous Park Avenue Armory, where the show runs through June 22, grouped in clans and led by hooded figures carrying torches. They cross a stone path through a heath that even seems to smell of peat, and are seated in steep bleachers (padded but with no chair backs), two sets of which face each other. In between there’s a narrow, dirt-covered corridor where the actors perform within arm’s reach of the first-row patrons. Indeed, the front walls tremble during the opening battle as soldiers careen into the embankment and leave muddy handprints thanks to a drenching rain that falls from overhead.