National Theatre of Scotland to Present One-Man MACBETH With Alan Cumming in 2012

Tony Award winner Alan Cumming will lead a one-man adaptation of Macbeth in June 2012, at The National Theatre of Scotland.

MACBETH will, according to the theatre's blog, be directed by John Tiffany and Andy Goldberg and will have performances at Tramway, Glasgow prior to a planned Lincoln Center transfer.

Cumming told The Stage on the play's unique take, "I have been obsessed with the play all my life. It was the first Shakespeare I was in, at the Tron in Glasgow. Speaking to John Tiffany in New York, earlier this year, I had this idea I wanted to swap the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, because there are so many things about gender, I thought it would be a really exciting idea to flip that. So we did this reading like that, in New York, and Andy Goldberg had this idea I should just play all the parts. Never one to refuse a challenge, we decided to do it."

Cumming's roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy. He has also appeared in independent films like The Anniversary Party, which he co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in; and Ali Selim's Sweet Land, for which he won an Independent Spirit award as producer. His London stage appearances include Hamlet, the Maniac in Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, for which he received an Olivier award, the lead in Martin Sherman's Bent, and as Dionysus in The National Theatre of Scotland's The Bacchae.

On Broadway he has appeared as Mac the Knife in The Threepenny Opera, the Emcee in Cabaret, for which he won the Tony in 1998, and "Design for Living". Cumming also introduces "Masterpiece Mystery" for PBS.

He has also written a novel, Tommy's Tale, had a cable talk show ("Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming") and produced a line of perfumed products labelled "Cumming". He has contributed opinion pieces to many publications and performed a cabaret show I Bought A Blue Car Today. Retaining his British citizenship, Cumming also became a U.S. citizen in November 2008.