A new twist on Macbeth with an all-female cast

A Scottish theatre is to tour the nation with an all-female cast for its nationwide tour of The Macbeths – Dominic Hill’s intimate and intense re-imagining of the Scottish play.

Directed by Citizens Theatre director Dominic Hill and adapted in collaboration with Frances Poet, this powerfully concentrated version of the text has a relentless focus on the marriage at the heart of the story.

The 2017 production was described as ‘a thrilling and visceral new way into one of Shakespeare’s most familiar plays.’

Charlene Boyd returns to the role of Lady Macbeth. Her electric portrayal of the ‘fiend like queen’ in the 2017 production earned her a Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland nomination for Best Female Performance.

Charlene will be joined by Lucianne McEvoy in the role of Macbeth. Lucianne recently appeared in Traverse Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of Ulster American at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and her performance in the National Theatre’s 2017 hit The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time). She is well known to Citizens audiences as she starred in the sell-out Bold Girls (2018) and Dominic Hill’s critically acclaimed production of The Libertine (2015).

Dominic said: ‘Our original production of The Macbeths was an exploration of the play in terms of the impact Macbeth’s actions have on the relationship between the two characters. It was an experiment in the spirit of the traditions of the Citizens Theatre and the Close Theatre.

‘Our revival of the play will explore the same relationships but this time in terms of the couple both being women.

‘We will focus on the same disintegration of a relationship, we will still plunge into a nightmarish, purgatorial world. But there will be an additional focus on how these women operate in a male world, where violence is seen to be the domain of the male sex.”

The Macbeths will tour to Dundee Rep (Wed 3 –Thu 4 Oct) MacArts, Galashiels (Fri 5 Oct) Paisley Arts Centre (Sat 6 Oct) The Byre Theatre, St Andrews (Tue 9 – Thu 11 Oct) MacRobert, Stirling (Fri 12 Oct) Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (16 Oct – 20 Oct – excluding Fri 19) Eden Court, Inverness (Tue 23 Oct) Pitlochry Festival Theatre (Thu 25 Oct) and Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock (Sat 27 Oct).

The Macbeths tour is part of the first season of work from the Citizens Theatre whilst their building is closed for an exciting redevelopment. During the two-year project the Citizens Theatre will also present productions at Tramway in Glasgow.