Read our review of a new adaptation of Macbeth in the Lyric Theatre at The Lowry in Salford Quays.

From the programme, I could tell this would be something different. 

I’m a bit of a Shakespeare purist, but I have a 16-year-old about to sit her English GCSE so this was an experience we could both assess from differing viewpoints. 

Set in the wonderfully cosy Lyric Theatre at The Lowry, this new adaptation of Macbeth was delivered by the innovative ‘Imitating the Dog’ theatre company, with just five actors against a backdrop of a huge video screen. 

The set was bookended by two additional screens either side of the stage delivering images captured from two mobile cameras on the stage itself, worked by the cast during the production.

From the offset, the vibe was dark and cinematic, delivering a visual punch with fast moving, video game style flashing images accompanied by dramatic audio. 

It felt like being immersed in a comic book, manga style, a shifting digital mediascape powerfully set each scene.

With references drawn from Batman and Blade Runner, this Macbeth was set in a future world, a metropolis, the dystopian Estuary City; a diaspora of cultures mashed up to immerse the players in a Yakuza style gangland environment. There was no hint of Scotland here.

The Witches introduced the story, in long black jackets and heavy black boots, their faces made up like Heath Ledger’s joker. 

An age-old tale of power and ambition, rage, revenge, and retribution. They introduced Macbeth and his Lady, a young teenage couple with issues, starting life as street kids scraping the bottom of the gangland community. 

The city is run by the ageing Duncan, the Oyabun, the Crime Lord. 

Through a twist of fate, the Macbeths work their way up the ladder, gathering allegiances and capping anyone in their way. There were guns, lots of guns.

Amidst the endlessly competitive hierarchy built on violence, they clung together through adversity, and we felt for them. 

It was stark and visceral and flush with emotion and pain. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and, reaching the top, Macbeth now the Oyabun, spiralled into madness, his Lady was kidnapped, and their inevitable downfall was brutal.

The Macbeths’ dialogue was pure Shakespeare throughout, delivered with skill and feeling. 

Macbeth was played by Benjamin Westerby, a RADA graduate who has recently worked with the RSC. Lady Macbeth was played by Maia Tamrakar, a graduate of Mountview Academy. Two young actors whose talents belies their years. 

The equally impressive Witches played all the other parts and operated the mobile cameras (adding to the on-stage choreography) showing incredible awareness and stage craft. 

Switching characters like chameleons, their narrative took liberties, was bang up to date, littered with slang and copious (if not over) use of profanities (the kids no doubt loved it).  

The fast-moving visuals and the sound, combined with the use of the video wall and the mobile cameras to really close in on the Macbeths ensured nothing was missed, every expression sold their story. 

A close-up view of the faces of the main actors meant that the well-known nuggets of narrative, the key quotes for the exam papers, were delivered to the max. 

Focusing on the actors, the screens and the sound was intense, but today’s audience clearly have capacity for this multimedia onslaught.

As the theatre was three quarters full of what I estimated to be 14-15-year-old GCSE students, I did wonder how they viewed having to study Shakespeare. Old hat? I can just imagine the rolled eyes. 

For the purists (which I confess I am) and an older audience, this re-telling of the original may not sit comfortably. Everything about this adaptation was designed to attract a young(er) audience. 

The staging, the visuals, the sound are a full-on experience. I had to Google some of the gangland language used, but the ‘kids’ seemed to get it. 

I was expecting mucking about from the large school groups, but they sat in silence, enthralled. That is success itself.