It was announced today that BAFTA award-winner, Ralph Fiennes and Olivier award-winner, Indira Varma will play opposite each other as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in a fresh and exciting adaptation of one of William Shakespeare’s most distinguished tragedies, ‘Macbeth‘.
The pair will be reunited with director Simon Godwin after all three worked together on the critically acclaimed Man and Superman at the National Theatre back in 2015. Since then Fiennes says he has “longed to work with Indira Varma and Simon Godwin again”. It seems that his wish was Godwin’s command as the trio have been reunited for this upcoming tour.
Varma says she is “thrilled to be heading back into the rehearsal room with Ralph Fiennes and Simon Godwin exploring Macbeth and Lady M’s fraught relationship and the play’s themes of ambition and corruption which still feel chillingly poignant in our modern world”.
With set design by Frankie Bradshaw and an adaptation by Emily Burns, this production has decided against traditional theatre staging and instead, four site-specific warehouses in four iconic cities will be transformed to become the setting for this highly esteemed production.
The producers Wessex Grove and Underbelly have said they feel “honoured and excited” to be working on such a “bold artistic vision for one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays”.
The production will open in Liverpool (November 24 – December 16, 2023) before heading to Edinburgh (January 13 – January 27, 2024), and then completing it’s longest stint here in London (February 11 – March 23, 2024). It will then head across the pond to play a season in Washington, D.C (April 2 – April 28, 2024).
UK tickets go on sale in June and further creative team and full casting will be announced soon.