Andrew Quick co-directs imitating the dog’s Macbeth, an audacious and dazzling new retelling of William Shakespeare’s tale of ambition, betrayal, and downfall.
Fusing live action with striking video technology, for which imitating the dog are renowned, Macbeth will open at CAST, Doncaster from 21-22 February and then tour till 6 May.
imitating the dog’s daring retelling of Macbeth is a neon noir thriller where Shakespeare’s original language collides with startling new scenes, stunning visuals, and a powder-keg intensity.
The new production’s cast will feature Benjamin Westerby (All’s Well That Ends Well and Wars of the Roses, Royal Shakespeare Company) as Macbeth and Maia Tamrakar (Spring Awakening, Almeida Theatre and Rock, Scissors, Paper, Sheffield Crucible) as Lady Macbeth.
The cast will also feature Laura Atherton (Night of The Living Dead™ – Remix, imitating the dog), Stefan Chanyaem (Living Archive, Royal Court Theatre) and Matt Prendergast (Dracula: The Untold Story & Night of The Living Dead™ – Remix, imitating the dog) as the Witches/Ensemble.
Tour listings and ticket information can be found here
You’re co-directing this new version of Macbeth, what can you tell us about this innovative new production?
ITD’s production of Macbeth is a bold adaptation. One of our starting points was to think of the Macbeths as a very young couple, as people in their late teens. This was a response, if you like, to recent film productions in which we see the Macbeths as much older. One of the challenges we set ourselves was to create a version in which, despite all the ‘evil’ things they do, the audience still root for the tragic couple. For it to work as a tragedy then we do need to have some empathy, some emotional connection to the Macbeths.
The other key element is the centrality of the witches. They set up the story in our adaptation, they play all the other characters. In our minds they are like tricksters who create a world into which our central protagonists fall. We have taken some liberties with the text here. While the Macbeths only speak the original verse, with some minor modification of names and titles, Pete Brooks (who is co-writer and director) and I have written new interactions with the witches/tricksters that show them in the process of creating and responding to the fiction that they are creating.
We’ve set the play in a kind of future metropolis, a twisted take on London, which we are calling Estuary City. It’s a place that, because of the different diasporas that make up its population – Italians, Russians, Japanese, Chinese etc. – has the look and feel of a mashup of Tokyo, of LA, of the suburbs of Naples and of the Essex ports along the Thames. This city is a sprawling mess which is run by an ageing crime lord called Duncan and the Macbeths start life as street kids, very low in the gangland hierarchy. Through an accident of fate (those witches again) the Macbeths end up working their way up the organisation. We have stuck to the original story but with some new plot twists, which we think are exciting and work really well in a contemporary context.
We are developing some new ideas and techniques with the technologies we are using. There’s some great use of AI in terms of image generation and we are using live cameras again. It’s bright, brash and very exciting at the moment and has wonderful energy to it. I can’t wait to see how it sits with audiences.
It follows imitating the dog’s Dracula and Night of The Living Dead – Remix, what was the inspiration for looking to Shakespeare next?
Yes, we staged an adaption of Dracula after Night of the Living Dead – Remix, so maybe it follows on in terms of our interest in horror and the gothic. Pete and I have adapted Shakespeare before – we did a version of Lear in Chile a few years ago, in Spanish, and that went very well.
Macbeth has many of the themes we’re interested in: power, ambition, violence, what happens when the supposed natural order of things is challenged. So, it feels like a logical follow-on to the last three big shows that we’ve staged. Of course, taking on the nation’s national poet/writer is a challenge. But it feels like the right time for us. There are so many connections between the original and the contemporary political and moral landscape.
Tell us a little more about how live action and video technology are fused together for this Macbeth?
Like all our recent work technology is a central component in the adaptation. We’re always pursuing how technology is a key formal part of our productions, that it is not used illustratively. Simon (Wainwright), who is a co-artistic director, is leading on this, as well as the set design, which is quite simple but beautiful. It consists of a large back wall that jags across the space and in front hang two screens. The Macbeths are always filmed in close-up on these hanging screens by the witches/tricksters, so there’s a kind of forensic, cinematic attention paid to these characters.
Meanwhile the rest of the stage is made up of ever-shifting images that reflect the worlds that the witches are conjuring up – worlds that are made up of the debris of the digital mediascape that we all now inhabit. And this includes the music. James Hamilton, who we’ve been working with for some years now, has composed some amazing soundscapes and music that, if you like, comes from a similar palette – samples and loops etc.
The effect we’re trying to create is to establish a world that forms around the Macbeths, a world in which they think they have some agency when really, they don’t. We think this connects to contemporary experience. We will see if audiences react in the same way.
You direct alongside Pete Brooks, how does this partnership work and how does it benefit the final production?
Oh, we work well together. We’ve been doing this for nearly twenty years now and with Simon, I have been working with him since 1998, so we all know each other very well. We understand our strengths and weaknesses. Although we come to rehearsals with a script, we all work collaboratively, and this includes the performers and the technicians (who all contribute creatively) as well.
We start off with everything in the room. James is composing the sound as we move along, and Simon the video material with others, Andrew Crofts, who we have worked with for years, the lighting and so forth. It can get chaotic at times and actors new to the process can find all this activity a little overpowering. Our new actors for Macbeth, and we have three in this production, have adapted really well to this process. Pete’s and my job is to keep all this in step, as it were.
In our partnership I tend to lead on the writing and detailed work with the actors and Pete, the organisation of the larger scenographic landscape and the stage picture. But we shift around in reality and share the load. But sharing the responsibility is important. I think we do this successfully. I mean, the shows seem to work. We are doing something different, and audiences seem to like what we do.
What’s the biggest challenge in putting together a production like this?
As I mentioned, keeping a firm grasp on all the different elements that make up the production. This is complicated on many levels. What we are doing with Shakespeare’s text needs delicacy and detail, the playing of the verse and the new sections is demanding, the fusion of image, light, sound could easily end up in confusion and mess. Working through these different and sometimes competing components is the biggest challenge. But I am speaking to you now at the end of the first week of rehearsal and it went wonderfully well. So, on to the next week and we’ll face new problems, no doubt, that we will have to solve.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Macbeth?
Buy the tickets! You won’t see anything like this – certainly in relation to Macbeth. Come with an open mind and be prepared to be thrilled and entertained. Most of all, come with the expectation that you might be moved by the Macbeths rather than be shocked by their evil. Shakespeare’s writing is extraordinary and we’ve tried to make something that does justice to the original. We’re not iconoclasts. We are responding to the original text from a starting point which recognises its beauty and cultural significance.
