Macbeth (an undoing)

This story will be told, the way it has always been told. What else use is it otherwise? The hags on the heath. The woman who went mad. The man who became a tyrant. When her husband returns victorious from the battlefield with a prophecy that he will become king of Scotland, Lady Macbeth vows to make their darkest ambitions a reality. So far, so familiar. But then the story fragments. Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth is ruthless and driven, unstoppable in her pursuit of power, yet she quickly descends into madness and despair. Zinnie Harris's thrilling new version undoes the narrative we know, and remakes it, examining Lady Macbeth's trajectory and asking if we have really heard the whole story. This edition includes an afterword by Dan Rebellato, Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. Macbeth (an undoing) premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in February 2023.

Zinnie Harris's plays include the multi-award-winning Further than the Furthest Thing (National Theatre/Tron Theatre; winner of the 1999 Peggy Ramsay Award, 2001 John Whiting Award, Edinburgh Fringe First Award), How to Hold Your Breath (Royal Court Theatre; joint winner of the Berwin Lee Award), The Wheel (National Theatre of Scotland; joint winner of the 2011 Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award), Nightingale and Chase (Royal Court Theatre), Midwinter, Solstice (both RSC), Fall (Traverse Theatre/RSC), By Many Wounds (Hampstead Theatre), the trilogy This Restless House (Citizens Theatre/National Theatre of Scotland), based on Aeschylus' Oresteia and Meet Me at Dawn (Traverse Theatre). Also, Ibsen's A Doll's House for the Donmar Warehouse, Strindberg's Miss Julie for the National Theatre of Scotland and Webster's The Duchess (of Malfi) (Royal Lyceum Theatre). Zinnie received an Arts Foundation Fellowship for playwriting, and was Writer in Residence at the RSC, 2000-2001. She is Professor of Playwriting and Screenwriting at St Andrews University, and is the Associate Director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.