Macbeth

William Shakespeare

Her Productions

Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester

June 18-29, 2025: 2 hrs 30 mins

(Also at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, July 2-3)

Screwing her courage: Elaine McNicol as Macbeth in Her Productions' vision of The Scottish Play. All pics: Lowri Burkinshaw

Her Productions has been around long enough not to need any special explanations, but for those not aware, it's a company of female and non-binary theatre people who specialise in finding a female-identifying voice in what they do.

With this latest Shakespeare production there’s plenty of scope for that. How significant are the witches (and was Shakespeare pandering to the fantasies of James the First and Sixth in making them so horrendously weird, “beards” and all)? Is the play really the tragedy of Lady Macbeth, rather than her husband? Is there a backstory to both of them that we should be thinking about?

Nonetheless, there’s disbelief to be suspended when practically every role is taken by a woman. Not an insuperable problem – in Shakespeare’s time they had males in all the female roles, so if he could work with that, why not reverse the process? And female actors have been convincing in male roles many times; but in this company of established and emerging actors, some can do it more convincingly than others.

There is interpretation in Hannah Ellis Ryan and Amy Gavin’s production (the text adapted by Hannah Ellis Ryan); they have their own prologue, as we see a woman delivering and losing a baby; there’s some rather lovely acapella singing just before the interval, and an epilogue recalls the opening. So we’re being told it’s about the desperately warped psychology of two people who longed to nurture children and never could, instead channelling their desires into lust for power. That’s hinted at in the text and makes sense.

The production, first seen at the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, is “in the round” (square, in this case, with Hope Mill’s small performance area adapted to place a few rows of seats on each side as well as the main bank in its usual formation). So there is no set to speak of, the main visual element being tartan costumes (Zoey Barnes and Dulcie Good) plus a tin bathtub for the first part, and an illuminated kettle drum (first used as the door-knock after the murder of  Duncan) as a cauldron for the witches to encircle, and then to bring urgent life to the fight scenes at the end.

Round about the cauldron they go – all available hands on deck for a neat bit of movement by Yandass Ndlovu – and on that subject the fight direction by Adam Cryne deserves a mention. The play is slightly cut, fast-paced and the staging suits the rapid succession of the later scenes well.

The stand-outs, though, are some individual performances of real quality, principally Elaine McNicol in the title role. She has a great Scots accent and catches the bitter defiance of the embattled regicide with huge energy. Miranda Parker makes a brilliant solo spot of the Porter, as well as being a sinister Hecate. Ciara Tansy (nice Scots tones again) is thoroughly heroic as straight-up, avenging Macduff.

Frankie Lipman, though young to be cast in the role, works very hard as Lady Macbeth and delivers the lines thoughtfully – though she, along with several others, doesn’t try for a Scots voice.

Of course, as Naomi Albans’ Queen Mother-like Duncan suggests, you can come from Glamis or anywhere else north of the border and still sound Home Counties if you want to.

More info and tickets here