Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays, for both respectable and dubious reasons. It’s accessible, has strong and compelling characters, many memorable lines and speeches, plus plenty of blood death and the supernatural. Also, it’s not a terribly complicated show to stage, is relatively short, and is popular enough that putting it up quickly has saved many a theatre company’s season over 400 years. And while Geoffrey Tennant (of Slings and Arrows) repeatedly refers to it as “an incredibly difficult play to stage effectively,” it has in fact been adapted to many different cultures, time periods, settings, characterizations, and political administrations.

The script itself has an interesting history; outside of the ordinary questions of Shakespearian authorship, by the first folio there were easily three sets of fingerprints on the quill. It draws from Middleton’s ‘The Witch,’ a play that has no other claim to fame or redeeming quality, and several apparent non-Shakespearean alterations that seem to be simple staging contrivances.

It was written in honor of King James I, who was A) Scottish, B) Duncan’s descendant, and C) fancied himself a witchcraft expert. Not surprisingly, Shakespeare’s troupe quickly became “The King’s Men.” But it, like much Elizabethan and Jacobian drama, fell into obscurity as the political and social climate changed.

During the restoration, Sir William D’avennant, Shakespeare’s (self-proclaimed) bastard son, added his fingerprints, and created a revival with a streamlined cast, and characters who were more complex, having more complex relationships. This version was highly acclaimed, appreciated for the addition of moral ‘foils’ to the Macbeths, and its expansion of the music and overall production scope. This was the script as performed for around a century, and then, without fanfare, was relegated itself to obscurity, while the First Folio version again became the standard.

As I approached the play, armed and with great caution, I very much longed for a more streamlined, richer ‘story’ for these characters to take part in. I’d felt some of the real emotion of the story was a bit diluted by extraneous one-off thanes, and underplayed relationships. After studying the history of the actual King Mac Bethad al Findlaích, I realized this was one of his Histories-cum-Tragedies, with much of the record intact. And I found the D’avennent, which, by Act I Scene 2, proved itself to be the variation I’d been craving. The downside: D’avennent didn’t quite get the gene for prose that his supposed father had.

So, I took the elements of D’avennent which told a much stronger, richer, and more disturbing story, and spliced them into the First Folio version. I also took the historic liberty of including Macbeth’s stepson, Lulach, who cleans up several characters, and adds to the…well, you’ll see.

I hope you enjoy this hybrid, and that it gives you an insight which will transform productions of the standard script into something with a little extra meaning, a different glimpse into the characters, and is just a bit creepier.