Opening at the Drayton Arms this week, Lady Macbeth Uncut, written by Catriona Clancy and directed by Emma Copland, places the spotlight on Gruoch, the real Lady Macbeth.
“In this new play, Lady Macbeth is a victim of the patriarchy who draws on the power of women’s alliances in the face of male violence.Â
This production, which deconstructs the original script, challenges the bias against older women in power, highlights the strengths of women’s networks, and encourages women to unite to overcome barriers. It combines Shakespeare’s language and original text to share Gruoch’s forgotten story that led to her choices in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.”
Where: Drayton Arms Theatre
When: 15-26 Oct
Ticket link: https://www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk/lady-macbeth-uncut
Writer/actor Catriona Clancy and producer Laura Kressly stopped by to tell us more about the production.
Macbeth is on everyone’s lips at the moment with the big West End transfer at the Harold Pinter. So, it’s a good time to focus on the real Lady M behind the fictional character?
Because Shakespeare was writing in a time where women did not have the rights they do today, women were often marginal characters in his writing.
This wasn’t helped by the fact that young boys training to be actors were cast as women and girls, so these parts were written to be playable by children.
We think it’s always important to consider women’s position within history and the theatrical canon, but with this big production coming up, we want to offer an alternative perspective on women’s positions within historical narratives.
As an all-female production you really place this character and those like her centre-stage. So where did the idea come from and how did you develop the show to its current point?
Our view of Lady Macbeth tends to be very limited; she’s known generally as the ‘fiend-like queen’ and is a byword for evil manipulation.
However, when our adaptor Catriona Clancy researched the real woman of 11th century Scotland, she discovered a resourceful woman (Gruoch) who experienced violence and prejudice.
Several members of her family were murdered by the king’s army, as they had stronger claims to the throne. Inspired by Gruoch, this adaptation builds empathy for a woman who finds herself with very little agency but challenges this with the support of other women.
The other source of inspiration came from an interview with Helen Mirren who said Lady Macbeth is ‘horribly underwritten’ and so this version aims to give her more of a voice, to put on stage what is happening off stage and redress the balance.
The final script is a mix of Shakespeare and some original dialogue and was developed through read-throughs and feedback.
You’re running a couple of community events alongside the Drayton Arms run, including a networking event. Was this always a crucial part of bringing Lady Macbeth Uncut to the stage?
Absolutely. Whilst we believe in theatre’s power to challenge the status quo, theatre’s position in British society can be somewhat siloed from the ‘real world’.
In this real world today, women are still marginalised in many ways, across many industries and sectors, and these events also examine this marginalisation and explore how we can mitigate that.
Do you have a favourite portrayal of Lady M that you might have used as inspiration?
The first Lady Macbeth Catriona Clancy ever saw was Judi Dench on video from the 1976 RSC production and her performance was pretty indelible!
But our play examines Gruoch rather than Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, and so we’re looking forward to creating an entirely new portrayal.
What is the USP of your show?
Lady Macbeth Uncut challenges existing perceptions of Lady Macbeth as a villain by arguing that she did what she did because of how she and her family were treated by men, and that she found support from the women closest to her.
Additionally, in our adaptation, the Witches are not supernatural beings but instead re-imagined as Gentlewoman from her previous court.
The play demonstrates how they too are the butt of misogynistic attitudes, but through their relationship with Lady Macbeth, we see how powerful and resilient female alliances can be – a model which is much needed as our sense of community gets ever more fractured.
From a production point of view, the core team consists of women over 35, a demographic consistently discriminated against in theatre, who are committed to giving opportunities to other women.