Past Productions - Macbeth

Find out more about some of our previous tours by clicking on the links to the right.

Macbeth

Last Respects

The Lover & Dumb Waiter

The Importance of Being Earnest

"A most entertaining and thought provoking production."

Halifax Evening Courier Feb 2003

Director’s Notes

Shakespeare’s plays are still as relevant today as when they were first written and as for the quality of writing he has yet to be surpassed. However, society and the English language have changed in the last 400 years and for many people, what are arguably the greatest works of literature are perceived as old-fashioned and inaccessible.

With this in mind, I have tried to give the play relevance to a contemporary audience by setting it in World War II, replacing swords with revolvers, Celtic tartan with battle dress and Blackshirt uniforms, and stereotypical witches with archetypal evil women.

I have paced up the play, used air-raid sirens and bomb blasts as sound effects, made Macbeth himself a more contemporary tyrant who is both brutal and thuggish as well as apt to mood swings - all in order match the play to the audience.
What I have not done, however, is be a Philistine and modernise the text. This is the genuine article in all it gory glory.