 The next production was Macbeth . Reviewers were lukewarm about the direction by Glen Byam Shaw and the designs by Roger Furse , but Olivier 's performance in the title role attracted superlatives . To J. C. Trewin , Olivier 's was " the finest Macbeth of our day " ; to Darlington it was " the best Macbeth of our time " . Leigh 's Lady Macbeth received mixed but generally polite notices , although to the end of his life Olivier believed it to have been the best Lady Macbeth he ever saw . 
