Mark Bruce Company will tour a new dance/theatre version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in 2018.
With direction and choreography by artistic director Mark Bruce, a cast of nine and design by the creative team behind Dracula and The Odyssey, the production features Jonathan Goddard and Eleanor Duval in the lead roles.
Macbeth will tour from January to May 2018 to Frome's Merlin Theatre, Winchester's Theatre Royal, Birmingham's DanceXchange, Wilton’s Music Hall, Ipswich Dance East, Blackpool Grand, Exeter's Northcott Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse and Stantonbury Theatre in Milton Keynes.
Bruce said, “Macbeth hits you fast, cuts through to the bone, and for me it is the least ambiguous of Shakespeare's plays. Its darkness opens our nightmares; we recognise fundamental traits inside ourselves and the consequences of acting upon them. The vicious pursuit of power to fill a void will always be relevant—the Macbeths are everywhere in every age, because they are a part of us.
“I first read Macbeth as a teenager and returning to it now the images, atmosphere it evokes have not changed. Its power lies in a relentless tale of supernatural horror told with a beauty and symbolism that reaches to the tragic state of the ‘other’. The supernatural is always present in Macbeth, bending our own thoughts and perceptions as well as those of the protagonists. It infects us, always one step ahead, and Macbeth’s decisions are made in the world of a nightmare as if there is no separation between thought and action. Murder is done and descent is rapid.
“The Macbeths are mere playthings of the evil they set free, and in the madness and emptiness that ensues they become but walking shadows, or, as in my adaptation, simply clowns of sound and fury.”