Theatre-lovers will be able to watch Shakespeare’s Macbeth this week in a palacial setting.

The Presidential Palace in Valletta has been chosen as the 56th venue to host the seven-month-long Castle Tour 2011. This annual production of one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces is staged in the castles and palaces of Europe and Scandinavia.

Some of royal and noble European families, such as King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia, have hosted these performances at residences like the Drottningholm Slott in Sweden.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a popular and accessible masterpiece and is probably the most performed play ever written. It is a thriller, a ghost story, a political drama, a martial epic and even a love story.

As directed by Paul Stebbings in this full-blooded TNT production, the witches are the shamans, the wild forest spirits who are neither men nor women.

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 she commanded. The setting is historical.

In typical TNT style, the performance is highly physical and contains dynamic interpretations coupled with Shakespearean verse speaking. The musical score is by Paul Flush and choreography is by Eric Tessier.

First performed in the year 2000, TNT’s Macbeth has toured over 30 countries on four continents.

UK newspaper The Observer described it as “a devastating performance... The witches were spellbinding, using every sinew of their bodies as they flayed Macbeth with their tongues. Paul Flush’s evocative score is pitched perfectly... a memorable production.”

Macbeth will be performed at the Presidential Palace in Valletta on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

To book tickets call 7979 0200 or book online at www.biljetti.com. Tickets may also be bought from Right Deal in Iklin and Cospicua; Call Zone, Paola; Untours, Żabbar; I-Centre, Pietá; Tele Zone, Qormi; 202 Jewellery, Valletta and Sliema; Hair Excellence, Eucharistic Congress Road, Mosta.

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