Something Wicked?

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  THE LONG READ: (15min) Nottingham Shakespeare Company are bringing their unique style to a new production of Macbeth, touring the East Midlands from 19th February to1st March 2025. We spoke to Director (and Porter!) Michelle-Louise Wright about what makes this Macbeth unique and relevant. 

  “Macbeth is ultimately a story about the uncontrolled desire for power and what you do to get that. If ambition is unchecked and is allowed to bubble over into action, the consequences are unforeseeable and ultimately lead to the destruction of the characters. It seems a resonant theme given current world politics! I think our production is also particularly interesting in its interpretation of Lady Macbeth. Many choose to show Lady Macbeth as a kind of femme fatale, pushing her essentially hapless husband towards destructive action; I find that a little simplistic. It’s always the women in these stories that lead the men astray which, of course, is over simplistic, derivative and (going back to the story of Eve) one of the reasons why we have such misogyny in society. 

  “This kind of portrayal is demeaning both to men and women. I think Macbeth should have more agency than he has been given in previous productions and Lady Macbeth a more rounded character. One of the things that the actors and I went into very early on was the Macbeths’ back story. The theme of inheritance, power and legitimacy weaves through this play, and I was reminded very much of Richard Sharpe (Bernard Cornwell’s up from the ranks rifleman, so famously portrayed by Sean Bean) as a character. A man who, through his prowess in battle, has raised himself up to a certain level of power and respect. And despite this, there is something in Duncan’s thanks for winning the initial battle that is withheld. I wondered whether Macbeth was perhaps not nobleborn, or came from the lower ranks.  If so, how did he get to be Thane of Glamis? He says “by Sinel’s death…” I decided to play that Sinel is Lady Macbeth’s father, that he's inherited through her and that she's the one who's born noble. Macbeth’s outsider status gives him another reason to seek control. 

  “However, if we’re thinking about inheritance then the thing that really strikes you about the Macbeths is that they have lost a child. Lady Macbeth talks of having “given suck” and loving “the babe that milks me” but we know there’s “no child of mine succeeding” as Macbeth says. The actors decided to go into this in quite a lot of depth and they decided that, not only had Lady Macbeth lost a child to disease, but that she was also pregnant at the time, the impact of her grief tragically resulting in a miscarriage. So we see these two characters who’ve gone through the trauma of losing two children and yet they are still very close; it hasn't driven them apart. In facing this, they are closer together - they seem to cling to each other in what is a very politically unsafe world.” 

  Wright also wants to confront contemporary issues in her production, “When you add to that that Macbeth is a warrior and has survived the danger and trauma of war, of the things he’s seen, for example when he “unseam”s the traitor, Macdonwald, from “the nave to the chaps and fixes his head on our battlements.” Macbeth rips the traitor’s torso in two with his merciless sword-stroke! Many soldiers struggle with the PTSD caused by these kind of experiences. I thought back to my grandfathers who fought in the war and having heard the stories of soldiers’ wives waking up in the middle of the night with their husbands’ hands around their neck because they think they’re fighting Nazi spies in their nightmares. It’s certainly a huge issue in the military for people coming back from the theatre of war – how to distance themselves from those experiences and come back to ‘real-life’. 

  “I think we see that in Macbeth when he is with his wife and his king compared to how he behaves when he feels under threat. It seems to bare a different aspect of his character, if not an entirely different personality. So, if you look at these two characters, who have gone through so much, you can't really blame them for wanting to exert some control over their situation and over their world. 

  It is evident that Wright really cares about her characters, “I wanted very much for the Macbeths to be sympathetic characters. I chose actors who were perhaps less ‘aristocratic’, if that is the word? I wanted actors who seemed to have a vulnerability and an internal kind of joy which I think both Emma Webber and Jack Dillon absolutely bring to the characters. Emma and Jack are brilliant and right from the auditions showed a playful joy and bubbling chemistry between them. When we were talking and developing the relationship between the Macbeths, we wanted it to be fun; we wanted them to enjoy each other’s company and for them to be madly in love. When the audience first see them together we want them to feel that this is a moment of joy, a little island of happiness in essentially a precarious and dangerous society and situation. 

  But could the portrayal of a passionate love like this sit uneasily with audiences? Not a lot of people expect Shakespeare to be sexy. “I initially worried that people might think the level of intimacy between the Macbeths that we have chosen to show was unnecessary or over the top. On the contrary, I think it's vital that we see how much they are in love with each other and how comfortable and intimate they are with each other, otherwise, why or how could they devise and plan the murder of Duncan together in the way that they do? 

“However, I think it’s also true, particularly of Lady Macbeth, that the murder of Duncan is a kind of a game or fantasy. She seems to have trouble differentiating reality and foreseeing consequences, almost reflecting Macbeth’s not being able to root himself entirely in domestic real-life. When the consequences do bring out the ruthless warrior in Macbeth, the one who says, “to be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”, we see Lady Macbeth responding, “all’s spent when our desire is got without content.” The story becomes that universal warning of “be careful what you wish for!”

“You see Macbeth in his first scene as King, planning the death of Banquo and presenting it to Lady Macbeth as if they're still playing this game, as if they're still having fun with it. He’s embraced the change of character that he needs to have to complete the seizure of power that began with the killing of the King. As a general, he knows that one battle does not win the war. Lady Macbeth, in an almost childishly naive way, believes that one bad act will make for a good new life and result in contentment.” 

Would it be difficult for the audience to watch the downfall of these characters? “I wanted the audience to feel heartbroken when Lady Macbeth and Macbeth find themselves distanced by the consequences of Duncan’s murder. We see them keep trying to come together but the openness, the innocence, and the trust that they had has been fractured. Emma is particularly wonderful at playing Lady Macbeth as very fragile and is ultimately entirely believable when we watch her slowly fall to pieces, once Macbeth is removed and distanced from her. She needed his protection; she needed his solidity, his bravery and his love. 

“After the banquet, we see that the intrusion of his ‘heartless soldier’- self has led to him no longer being able to touch her gently. The “cry of women” begins there with a heart-rending and heartbreaking cry from Lady Macbeth; this is the last time we see her try to reach her husband. Yet, despite his increasingly violent behaviour, it is still important to me that Macbeth is a human character and one that we can feel sympathy for. He is trying to do his best within the context of what he has been taught; this is how he is been raised up, this is what he has been getting the glory for, being a ruthless killer. He's trying to make things better, he's trying to further the plan they made together. It’s devastating watching him trying to touch her and embrace her and bring her into it but the violence has been unleashed and hurts both of them. 

“The real-life prevalence of domestic violence in soldiers suffering from PTSD when they and their families don't have the right support is heartbreaking so I wanted that to be part of Macbeth’s story. Ultimately, it’s when Macbeth is responsible for the death of women and children we feel he has gone over an uncrossable line, especially now because he's doing it for himself and not under orders. But then ask yourself, what would you do? What would you feel had you been ordered to commit acts in war that lead to the killing of innocents? In any war there is “collateral damage”. Could any one of us cope with that guilt?  One bad decision for the Macbeths has unleashed something uncontrollable and, in our production, although you might not excuse their actions, perhaps you might understand them.” 

  So, does Wright feel that she has been successful in making the Macbeths more human? “I feel that 90% of directing is casting and in this case that is absolutely the truth! Emma and Jack have completely committed to developing the back story, relationship and emotions between these characters and their performances are extraordinary. I must give them credit for bringing a sympathetic portrayal of the Macbeths as a couple to the stage. I expect the audience will love them as much as I do!”

  But what would Wright tell people who think Shakespeare is not for them? “When we started Nottingham Shakespeare Company in 2018, it was because we couldn’t find quality Shakespeare that was regularly being made locally and that was accessible to everyone. A lot of us had backgrounds in both education and theatre making and we persistently came across young people who had already decided Shakespeare was boring and old fashioned and this was because they had been alienated from it, often generationally or though poor educational experiences. Crucially, the only way to challenge these prejudices is for them to see Shakespeare in performance, and that experience to be quality.”

  And why is that important? “We feel it’s a genuine mission, opening Shakespeare up for everyone to embrace and feel ownership of it. Shakespeare is so integral to our language and important in our culture that, if you are excluded from Shakespeare, you are genuinely disempowered. Shakespeare was and remains the master of capturing human experience in language. Language is key to thought and through the arts in general and theatre in particular our perspectives are widened; we are enabled to consider new ways of thinking and feeling. 

"Exclusion from language and culture means people cannot formulate new and revolutionary ways of thinking and thus benefits the current power structures in society. If we want the world to change for the better, people need to be able to access and embrace language and culture, to feel a part of humankind, to be able to think in new ways and most importantly to put those thoughts into words.” 

So come and see Macbeth, and experience Shakespeare at his visceral and passionate best, brought to life by a stellar cast and directed for audiences who think they don’t like Shakespeare. By placing the human relationships at the centre of the play, NSC share the power and ambition, desire and decline, love and madness that makes Macbeth one of the greatest stories ever told.

Macbeth opens on Wednesday 19th February 2025 at All Saints Church in Loughborough and tours including Nottingham, Beeston, Leicester, Lincoln and Ruddington until 1st March. Tickets are available here and you can learn more about the Company here (where there are discounts for educators and students, public sector and blue light workers and anyone working in the arts and theatre) .

To contact Nottingham Shakespeare Company, please email, pr@nottinghamshakespeare.co.uk