Three witches on a heath have a disturbing prophecy for a victorious warrior. Macbeth will be king of Scotland. As this wicked seed is planted, daring Macbeth and his determined wife Lady Macbeth draw bloody daggers and set out on a fateful path. But seizing the crown comes at a terrible price, as guilt grows, enemies draw close and the fight for survival hurtles towards a tragic conclusion…
Arran’s Paul Tinto is currently touring with a new production of Shakespeare’s classic. A Derby Theatre and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch production, this epic and intensely terrifying period version of Shakespeare’s most regal and timeless classic warns of the effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake.
For any Voice readers around the UK, it is currently running at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, before it moves onto Derby Theatre from Tuesday 3rd to Saturday 14th March, and then Perth Theatre from Tuesday 31st March to Saturday 4th April.
Directed by Douglas Rintoul, following his acclaimed productions of Much Ado About Nothing and UK tour of The Crucible – ‘serious theatre, seriously done’ (The Stage) – and after this Summer’s highlight adaptation of As You Like It: A Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch partnership with the National Theatre.
This co-production between Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Derby Theatre follows successful collaborations for Abigail’s Party, Abi and One Man, Two Guvnors.
The Voice spoke to Paul who told us about his experience playing Macbeth:
“It’s been a long journey. As with all Shakespeare, because of the language, it takes a lot longer to learn it and then make sure you know what you are actually saying. Luckily I had nearly a month before rehearsals started to break the back of the line learning but the language is so rich that even now, while doing the show, I’m.still discovering new things within the lines.
The rehearsal period itself wasn’t the longest so it was a fairly heavy January. For the first week of rehearsals it was just myself and the actor playing Lady Macbeth along with the director. Their relationship is so key to the play that we needed a lot of time to explore it. Then, on week two the rest of the company joined us. The total rehearsal period was about four and half weeks.
As for playing Macbeth, it is an amazing part but also comes with the drawback that everyone has their own idea of how he should be played and there are so many famous lines and speeches that there are always some waiting to hear “how he’s going to do it”. “Is this a dagger” is one of those for sure. But fortunately I’ve managed to leave that sort of thing behind and just enjoy it. You’re never going to please everyone so why worry.
The joy of the part is that he goes on such an.amazing journey and has such amazing thoughts and ideas about life and the human condition. There is always more to be got with playing him and I don’t think I would ever get bored of it. He deals with some of life’s biggest questions that are just as relevant now as they were back when they were written.”
Many thanks Paul and best of luck with the performances!
Featured image shows Paul as Macbeth. Photo credit Mark Sepple.