Interview: 'It's a Brilliant Ride As a Play': ETT's Artistic Director Richard Twyman on MACBETH

Following a successful tour in 2023/2024, the English Touring Theatre Company’s production of Macbeth is transferring to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre from 5 March.

BroadwayWorld sat down with ETT’s Artistic Director Richard Twyman to talk about how he feels bringing back this critically acclaimed show for a limited run.

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How does it feel to be transferring the English Touring Theatre Company’s production of Macbeth to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre?

It’s really exciting that more audiences get to see it. I think how we made it first time around - the practical parameters of it were so challenging in terms of the rehearsal time and the tech time. At the end I think it became about a 16 week tour or something, both in the UK and internationally, around proscenium arch spaces. We basically had to have a totally different design, which would work in all those spaces. Dramaturgically, things in the show change. For me, it was always one of those shows that was constantly evolving. We’re so proud of what we made, but you always feel like ‘hang on, I think there’s deeper we can go with this, further where we can push these ideas.’

There were so many aspects of the show that were very interesting when I saw Macbeth at the Shakespeare North Theatre, for example the use of CCTV to show what was happening to the characters offstage as well as those characters onstage. It was very clever to show the different perspectives of what was going on in the story at the same time.

It’s amazing that these plays can do this and they can adapt. It’s one of the things we try to do at English Touring Theatre is make the work as bespoke as we can for the different audiences that we go to. The CCTV thing was a big part of the original concept. We were really interested in the psychology of this play and probably more than any other Shakespeare I can think of, it really dives into the marriage. It felt like, this idea of CCTV, to see into the details of a couple. To see their private conversations in the kitchen for example. It felt really truthful to what it was.

We did a big edit on the play, on the text, which saw us essentially remove the first five scenes of the play in the order that Shakespeare wrote them. We folded all of the military speeches into the home, so the speeches that are made to celebrate Macbeth are done at a dinner table. The soldiers, after the battle. It was very contemporary in its structure and CCTV was a part of that.

There have been a lot of productions of Macbeth in the past few years. Why do you think it’s one of the most popular Shakespeare plays to stage?

I really want to ask all the audiences that. I really want to ask, ‘why Macbeth?' It’s unbelievably popular still. The context we made it in for Shakespeare North, I think there were five or six other major productions happening in that year. It was a very busy time.

From ETT’s terms, it certainly has been the most popular play we’ve ever done. Already off the first leg of it, over 43,000 people have seen it. By the time we finish, that will be way higher than that. Which is huge when you think about it. I also think it’s a hugely accessible Shakespeare. There’s so much packed in it. I think what I really love about our production is it’s not all one note. We try to embrace the contradictions in it and the shifts in tone and energy. It’s unpredictable at every moment. I think for all those reasons it’s a brilliant ride as a play.

When I watched Macbeth at Shakespeare North, you could hear the audience reacting to the story as if it was the first time they had ever heard it, even if they hadn’t and I think that’s a testament to how English Touring Theatre have interpreted the story for this production…

Thank you. That’s great. One of the reasons for that, is that we’re so conscious with a play that so many people study. It might be their first experience of Shakespeare. I’m always trying to get into the head of the person who is seeing it for the very first time and doesn’t know the story. It’s fresh, it’s surprising and it catches you out. Theatre is supposed to fun, as well as all the other things that it does.

Can you tease what the company has coming up in the future, or is there anything else you’d like to produce?

Great question. You’re right, we’ve built a brilliant reputation that I’m really proud of, of taking titles that are on syllabuses or are part of the well known drama canon and largely really through finding really exciting young directors, who are perhaps tackling their first classic or first Main Stage show, have managed to breathe new life into them.

A big part of it is trying to respect our audiences. What is it that’s going to get them out their house and give them an exciting experience? We’ve done that a lot by working with brilliant, talented directors and everyone who comes from that. In terms of coming up, one show that has been announced is Marie & Rosetta. It’s partly a play, partly a musical and a brilliant piece. That’s the next thing coming in after Macbeth. We’re investing a lot in developing productions that are very bespoke and unique.   

Macbeth is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre from 5 - 29 March

Marie & Rosetta will run at the Rose Theatre in Kingston from 2 - 24 May before transferring to Chichester Festival Theatre from 25 June - 26 July

Rehearsal photo credits: Richard Lakos

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