Macbeths, The

At the heart of Shakespeare’s darkest play is a disintegrating marriage. This new adaptation using a radically cut-down version of the text focuses on the relationship between one of the most famous killers in literature and his ambitious wife. Read more …

‘O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife’

Returning from battle, Macbeth hears a prophesy emboldening him to murder and betray. Compelled by his equally ruthless wife, Macbeth ignores his creeping sense of guilt and hopelessness and attempts to hasten the hand of fate, unwittingly ushering in the downfall of them both.

This production has been specially created to be performed in the intense and exposed atmosphere of our Circle Studio and is directed by Dominic Hill.

The critical consensus

It’s intense stuff – perhaps a little too much so in a relentless 90 minutes that feels as much an experiment as a fully fledged play, a claustrophobic commentary on the original more than a stand-alone work. But it’s illuminating all the same.

(*) (*) Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 29/09/2017

Punctuated by throbbing techno and lacerating shards of electric guitar, this is a play for today's desperate times as much as its classical source. It also comes possessed with a final moment guaranteed to make you jump, if not the life to come, then certainly the one that comes after.

(*) Neil Cooper, Coffee-Table Notes, 30/09/2017

It ends with a profound sense of human tragedy and waste that is often absent from larger and more lavish productions; and offers a rich evening of theatre for anyone who loves Macbeth, and also loves to see it reborn, in ever more challenging forms.

(*) Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman, 30/09/2017

Two disturbingly physical performances boost a play which is unremittingly brutal, almost to the point of distraction. In spite of a lack of subtlety, Hill's framing of the two as a kind of latter-day Bonnie and Clyde, destroying themselves as others, breathes lusty new life into two characters which have become ubiquitous.

(*) (*) Lorna Irvine, The List, 02/10/2017

Cleverly set and superbly acted, it is a reminder of the possibilities of studio theatre at the Citizens.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage, 09/10/2017

While effective, Hill’s production doesn’t quite escape the air of academic exercise, albeit one blessed with strong central performances from Boyd and Fleming, who make some of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches sound as if they were brand-new.

(*) (*) Allan Radcliffe, 09/10/2017