What is Macbeth (Abridged)?
The Purpose and Genesis
In 2023 Nottingham Shakespeare Company officially launched their Outreach Programme whose aim was to develop opportunities for schools, colleges, companies, care and support settings and other organisations to engage with Shakespeare.
As part of this, the Company decided to create First Encounter versions of popular Shakespeare plays that students may be studying and people will have heard of and perhaps want to know more about. These will be presented to the public as Work in Progress and then fully developed shows alongside workshops designed to develop understanding of text, character, story or technique.
NSC hope that this pop-up format will create new or deeper connections to the plays as well as giving personal development and wellbeing opportunities for organisations and their staff and service users by bringing creative and communicative play into new spaces.
June Dates Announced
A Feast & A Festival
Macbeth has been booked as part of the New Theatre Fringe Festival (StuFF) at the University of Nottingham. A rare chance to see this production (and NSC) in a purpose built Theatre. Tickets will be available soon - keep an eye here for further details!
Cleaver and Wake, in Nottingham's exciting new Island Quarter, is already synonymous with fine dining, but now looks set to be a champion of Nottingham culture by hosting performances of Nottingham Shakespeare Company's Macbeth on Friday June 30th, 2023, at 7pm and 9pm in its dedicated Upstairs events space.
Dinner and a show is a real treat and yet it can seem that you don't have quite enough time for both. NSC's abridged Macbeth, clocking in at a breakneck 60 minutes, is the perfect combination with finer dining at Cleaver and Wake, for a more casual meal at Binks Yard or simply a few drinks at the bar in this exquisite canal-side venue.
You don't have to be dining to enjoy Macbeth; tickets to the show are a cost-of-living-friendly £5 and it promises to be a rollercoaster of a show. "We play with audience on three sides of us," says Actor/Director, Michelle-Louise Wright, "and with a maximum of three rows of seats it means the audience is almost in touching distance of the actors. You can hear every intake of breath, feel the whistle of air as Macbeth's sword flies by. It's immersive, intimate and exciting!"
TO BUY TICKETS - CLICK HERE OR ON POSTER
06.05.2023 Coronation day: a series of performances and work
Macbeth (Abridged) Performances 10:30, 13:00, 15:45
Informed by the feedback from our Work-in-Progress performances at the beginning of April. Expect thrills a-plenty on this visceral rollercoaster show; Macbeth in original text, in an hour, with all the lechery and treachery left in!
Workshops: Playing Shakespeare 12:00 & 14:45
Led by our Artistic Director: Michelle-Louise Wright. A 45 minute whistlestop tour of some of the techniques the Company use to develop their understanding of text and character including voice & text, playing with form & structure, psychogeography and more. Michelle-Louise has trained with both Shakespeare's Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company in active approaches to Shakespeare so wear comfortable loose clothing and don't expect to be doing any sitting down!
Special Rates
If you come to a workshop that entitles you to see the show for only £5! Discounts also available for students, educators, unwaged and blue light workers.
Playing Shakespeare Workshops: My Experience
Our Banquo, James Kaye, on how he came to join the Company
"My first encounter with Nottingham Shakespeare Company was at a Macbeth workshop in October 2021. I hadn't acted in at least 5 years but the laid back and encouraging atmosphere on the day meant I had no trouble opening myself up to Shakespeare's words in front of a group.
Artistic Director, Michelle-Louise Wright, gave one-on-one feedback after performing my soliloquy and that gave me the knowledge to start improving my acting and the confidence to audition for the company's summer production.
Auditions can be intimidating, particularly to someone like me who hadn't performed in years. However, the workshop allowed me to play with the text and prepared me for future auditions.
Additionally, Michelle's analysis of the literary techniques in the soliloquies provoked me to consider things I hadn't before, such as allusions: 'If it were done when tis done, then 'twere well it was done quickly' is very similar to Jesus telling Judas 'That thou doest, do quickly'. This close reading of the text really helped and pushed my marks up when I studied Macbeth at Univeristy - making the workshop ideal for those studying Macbeth at all levels of education! "
08.04.2023 Macbeth: Abridged Work in Progress
Work in Progress Performances: Sold Out
On Saturday 8th April audiences were given the opportunity to join in with the creative process as Nottingham Shakespeare Company invited you, a select and intimate audience, into their development room. The Winter's Tale stars experiment with Shakepeare's bloody tragedy of ambition, death, and madness, slimming it down to an hour in length, keeping all the drama and action, and sticking to the text!
"The audience is an integral part of the performance," says actor-director Michelle-Louise Wright, and by inviting our audience to our work in progress we know we will make better theatre. We want to feel that feedback and respond in our creative process as well as in polished performance."