Macbeth

William Shakespeare

Bolton Octagon, Derby Theatre, Hull Truck Theatre co-production

Bolton Octagon

March 4-28, 2026; 2 hrs 30 mins

Oliver Alvin-Wilson as Macbeth in Mark Babych's production. All pics: Tom Arran

Macbeth is one of the plays everyone knows. Witches, forests and daggers all around - which means you have to be a good director, with a good cast, to raise the roof. Mark Babych, artistic director at Hull Truck and the director of this three-theatre production, partially achieves this.

Mark aims to make it relevant to the world we live in, with decisions made far beyond our control. Again, he partially achieves this through the use of mundane sets and ordinary clothes.

There may be the odd miss-step: how do the Kalashnikov-wielding soldiers suddenly end up fighting

with knives? - but that's how it is, OK? While he has reduced the thickets of nobles and the plot line is

clear, he does sometimes allow the pace to slow. The Porter scene is particularly dragged out; Shakespeare’s comedy doesn’t work too well with modern timing.

Which means the actors and the language musy sustain the play to a greater degree than usual. Two actors in particular rise to the challenge. Malcom (Cayvan Coates ) takes on a rather boring role - the king over the border - and makes it real. Working with Macduff (Simon Trinder) in scene four, he brings to life the dilemma of the current war in the Middle East. How do we know the person replacing the existing tyrant will be better - or at least no worse - than the one we know? Macduff is specially clear and convincing.

Lady Macbeth (Jo Mousley), comes across from the start as someone you would like to have as your host at a dinner party. You may have food poisoning afterwards but not because of anything she did. In fact I would advise our own potential claimants for the political "throne" to get down to the Octagon to see how they should screw their courage. Ignore the subsequent descent into a very credible portrayal of regret. Unusually for a political play, the baddies get their just desserts .

Sometimes the actors get into such a passion their diction disappears. But as we all know the basic plot and there are so many catchphrases, mostly this is not a problem. One actor who speaks with perfect clarity is Ross (Benjamin Wilson).

The fights are specially convincing (director Haruka Kuroda) with Kung Fu kicks and very metallic- sounding knives .

More info and tickets here