Macbeth comes to the Presidential Palace

TNT is reviving its highly-acclaimed version of Macbeth, Shakespeare’s darkest and most exciting tragedy at the Presidential Palace in Valletta next week.

The Presidential Palace will be the venue hosting the prestigious Castle Tour 2011 next week.

This unique event has become the most comprehensive summer outdoor tour of any European theatre company.

The production has toured to over 20 countries on three continents, in venues as diverse as a ruined plantation house in Atlanta to Windsor Castle, from major theatres in Tokyo and Berlin to palaces in Verona and Stockholm.

Shakespeare’s popular and accessible masterpiece Macbeth is probably the most performed play ever written.

It is a thriller, a ghost story, a political drama, a martial epic and even a type of love story. It also portrays the greatest study of evil ever penned.

As directed by Paul Stebbings in this full-blooded production, the witches are the shamans, the wild forest spirits who are neither man nor woman. They unleash all the dark dramatic energy.

Macbeth is a soldier, not a thinker but his bravery is corrupted by ambition. His wife is also a type of witch who calls down the demons to “unsex her”. She is ultimately possessed and destroyed by the spirits she thought to command. The setting is historical.

Besides the much-admired TNT ingredients which include a highly physical style, and dynamic interpretations coupled with qualitative Shakespear­ean verse-speaking, producer Grantly Marshall describes this production as having an atmospheric setting and dense musical score by composer Paul Flush, powerful choreography from Eric Tessier and striking visual imagery.

First performed in the year 2000, TNT’s Macbeth has toured to over 30 countries on four continents. This makes it the Macbeth that has been seen by more people in more countries than any other in the past 10 years.

• Macbeth by TNT Theatre Britain is being staged on September 8, 9 and 10. Tickets may be obtained online at www.biljetti.com or by phone on ticket hotline 7979 0200.