By Zinnie Harris, in a new version after Shakespeare

‘Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood’

This story will be told, the way it has always been told. What use is it otherwise? The hags on the heath. The woman who went mad. The man who became a tyrant.

When her husband returns victorious from the battlefield with a prophecy that he is to become King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth will stop at nothing to make their darkest ambitions a reality. So far, so familiar. But then the story fragments…

In her acclaimed plays This Restless House and The Duchess (of Malfi), Zinnie Harris reimagined classic texts, bringing the perspectives of their female characters centre stage. Shakespeare’s iconic Lady Macbeth is ruthless and driven, unstoppable in her pursuit of power, yet she quickly descends into madness and despair. Harris’ thrilling new version undoes the story we know, and remakes it, examining Lady Macbeth’s trajectory asking if we have really heard the whole story.

A Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh production.

Supported by The Stephen W Dunn Theatre Fund.