The Maskers presented Shakespeare's Macbeth to full houses at the Nuffield Theatre Southampton from Tuesday 14th to Saturday 18th January

Ken Hann, the director wrote;

The themes of ambition, greed, power, corruption, murder and retribution, seeming as relevant to us now as they were in the seventeenth century, have attracted so many people, myself included, to direct Shakespeare's tragic masterpiece.

We took as our central theme "equivocation" discussed by the Porter making his way to open the castle gates. The play is full of ambiguity. There are many instances in the text, for example "The battle's lost and won" and So foul and fair a day". The characters themselves are not what they seem. Macbeth, who kills without a thought in battle, finds it very difficult to dispatch Duncan. Lady Macbeth, so strong and resolute, very quickly crumbles after the deed. Duncan himself, this wise and revered king is willing to risk his kingdom by telling his lords that his son will succeed him. This was not the normal route to succession in eleventh century Scotland!

The more I read it the more I felt that all the main characters, those who could influence history, were scrabbling over each other, in a most unseemly way, to reach the top of the heap. Shadows of twenty-first century politics here? This led me to a vision of rats fighting each other in dirt and filth. John Hamon, the designer, brilliantly turned that idea into a set constructed entirely of other people's cast offs, thus connecting the ideas of a rubbish tip and things appearing to be other than what they seem. The music was specially composed and costumes designed to echo that theme.

Back in November we began a journey of exploration that led us to look deeply both into the text and the history bringing to the stage fresh ideas which celebrate Shakespeare's brilliance as a playwright.

Ken Hann (Director)

Photographs by courtesy of Clive Weeks ( www.cwphotos.co.uk )