The Royal Shakespeare Company has gone into video gaming, collaborating with a New York-based independent game studio and publisher to create Lili, based on Lady Macbeth.
Produced by the RSC and iNK Stories, Lili is set in contemporary Iran. Zar Amir plays Lady Macbeth or Lili and draws from her experience as an Iranian woman in exile who has confronted her own battles against authoritarian-gendered oppression.
Players are immersed in a neo-noir vision of modern Iran where surveillance and authoritarianism are part of daily life. The gameplay features an interactive game format, giving players the chance to immerse themselves in the world of Lady Macbeth and make choices that influence her destiny.
Macbeth’s witches are reimagined as hackers, with surveillance cameras and cyber-infiltration putting the player at the heart of the story and giving them a “unique” perspective into the world of the play. This modern twist on the Macbeth story explores themes of technological domination, the manipulation of information and institutional violence.
Vassiliki Khonsari, co-founder of iNK Stories said, “the partnership between iNK Stories and the Royal Shakespeare Company is a landmark collaboration, bringing together two creative forces to unlock the profound potential of adapting Shakespeare’s timeless masterpieces for contemporary audiences.
“It pushes the boundaries of storytelling, expanding the creative vision of the RSC into new, interactive territory. A video game based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a thrilling endeavour that transforms one of literature’s darkest and most compelling tales into an immersive, interactive experience.”
RSC co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey added, “from its first performance, Macbeth was always exhilarating: its sudden opening with thunder and lightning raises audience adrenaline levels and propels them as participants, not just spectators, into the jittery, action-driven narrative. Lili creates similar effects for audiences.
“As a storytelling medium, gaming today is what theatre has always been: a chance to explore worlds, inhabit a story and experience something at once personal and communal. Centring this tense thriller around Lady Macbeth rather than her husband is radical and transformative. It turns the play’s questions around gender, identity and power inside out.”
Emma Smith, RSC board member and Shakespeare academic at Hertford College, Oxford has worked on the adaptation of the text and added, “forget the old chestnut that Shakespeare would be writing for Hollywood if he were alive now. What Lili makes absolutely clear is he’d be writing for gaming.”
Lili is in development and will be released later in 2025.