review: macbeth -- a variety show by default

The show, they say, must go on.  And so it did.

The second Sydney fringe show I've seen now, and also quite worthy of its festival.  I picked it because it had "Macbeth" in the title and I'm slightly obsessed with all things Macbeth, which I think was a pretty fair reason to pick it.

It was, as its title implies, a variety show.  With a loose, thin plot holding it all together.  The actual substance was tenuous at best, but it was a fun sort of tenuous.  Vaguely odd and oddly vague, you know, the usual.

There were all the usual elements of a variety show -- songs, stand-up comedy, magic tricks, hula hooping -- interspersed throughout the loose plot.  Kind of how I envision a certain book to be, sort of.

Oh, the actual plot?  I seem to have left it out:  it was all about which of the characters had killed the actor meant to play Macbeth in the cursed play.  They figured it out in the end.

Anyway, it was a riot.  I think you could also call it a hoot.  My favorite bit was the stand-up comedy.  It was all pretty good, but my favorite was about the bipolar bear.  Was he suffering drastic mood swings, or did he like both boy and girl bears?