13.6.12

Theatre preview: Macbeth @ Tramway, Glasgow

Published by METRO

Tonight (13 June) until 30 June (except Mondays), 7.30pm (Sundays 4pm, matinee Saturday 23 June 2.30pm), £10-£20, Tramway, Glasgow.
Tel: 0845 330 3501. www.tramway.org


VIDEO: Macbeth - trailer



Friends, Romans, commuters – please raise your hands if you enjoyed learning Macbeth at school. Right… I make that a 50-50 split. Between those of you who had good and bad teachers.

See, when I was a wee boy, there was a frustrating gulf between the intensity of Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish play’ and the monotony of how it was read by a beard-scratching, clock-watching member of the English department.

But, the honest man my tutor was, he admitted that Shakespeare’s shortest and bloodiest tragedy – which delves into themes of ambition, desire and the supernatural – will forever belong on the stage rather than the page.

His point is demonstrated in stunning fashion tonight, when an audacious re-imagining of the story premieres at Glasgow’s Tramway.

In this National Theatre of Scotland production, multi award-winning actor Alan Cumming takes on every role in Macbeth as he plays a modern-day psychiatric patient who is channelling the 17th-century tale.

‘I have been obsessed with Macbeth for as long as I can remember,’ said Cumming. ‘It continues to haunt and inspire me.’

This truly incredible theatrical experience will soon be heading off to New York, so it’s your duty to catch it while it’s on your doorstep.