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Hello and welcome to this audio introduction to Macbeth by William
Shakespeare at the Young Vic theatre. The production is directed by Carrie
Cracknell and Lucy Guerin, with design by Lizzie Clachan.
The audio described performance is on Saturday 19 th December at 2.30pm.
There will be a touch tour, but the time is not yet confirmed. For further information and to book for the touch tour, please call the Young Vic box office on 020 7922 2922. We’ll repeat this introduction in the auditorium at 2.15pm.
Macbeth will be described by Eleanor Margolies and Kirstin Smith.
The show lasts for two hours, with no interval. This introduction will take about 15 minutes to listen to. It gives an overview of the characters, costumes and set.
Macbeth is performed by a multiracial cast of twelve actors. Sequences of dance are incorporated into the action and dialogue. It takes place in a claustrophobic, militarised modern world, making reference to contemporary images of violence and torture from television news and online videos. Both the set and the costumes are predominately black and grey, but the costumes provide surprising splashes of vivid colour and pattern. The costume design draws on military wear, contemporary high fashion and 1970s style.
As the play opens, soldiers are returning from war. When the soldiers first appear, they wear suits for protection from chemical and biological warfare: these are translucent plastic overalls over their charcoal grey uniforms, both tucked into heavy black military boots. On top, they wear bulletproof vests and solid grey kevlar helmets. Their faces and overalls are dusty and grimy.
A leader among the soldiers is Macbeth , in his 30s, with a long, pale face, hollow cheeks and a reddish-brown beard. Like the other soldiers, Macbet h’s hair is cropped close on the sides and longer on top. Macbeth has watchful, light brown eyes, and a careful manner — he moves with purpose, as though accustomed to

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The soldiers are comradely and tactile with one another, suggesting a shared history. Macbeth’s fellow soldier and friend Banquo is about the same age — a bit shorter than Macbeth, he has curly black hair, large, expressive brown eyes, b rown skin and a black beard and moustache. He’s confident and easy in his movements. Banquo also has a son in his early teens, Fleance , whom he watches with affection. Lennox, a small, disciplined female soldier has curly black hair pinned back from a youthful face with big brown eyes. Ross is a burly, energetic soldier with short dark hair, dark brown skin, and a clean-shaven face, quick to smile.
When not in combat, the soldiers either wear grey shirts, combat trousers and black berets, or dress more formally in single-breasted black suits with white shirts and skinny black ties. Some add a dash of colour with very bright, animalprint, pointed brogues.
Public life in this militarised state revolves around the royal family, who have a preened, camera-ready appearance.
King Duncan dresses in the style of an earlier era. He has slicked-back brown hair, a pallid complexion, pencil moustache, and orange-shaded sunglasses.
Short in stature, Duncan swans around decadently, smiling for unseen cameras, wearing a double-breasted shiny grey suit over a burgundy polo-neck, with a red handkerchief in his breast pocket.
The king’s son, Malcolm , has also just returned from combat. Around the same age as Macbeth, he’s sandy-haired, with a handsome, clean-shaven, tiger-ish face. Once at home, Malcolm wears contemporary fashion: a double-breasted checked blue and brown suit with brass buttons, brown loafers, and a large, gold

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Rolex watch. Under his suit Malcolm wears a white tshirt with a geometric yellow design on the front, reminiscent of a stylised sun.
Lady Macbeth , Macbeth’s wife, is highly poised, every outfit considered and movement clipped. She’s a slight figure with a light brown bob — one side pinned back; hooded, bright blue eyes; a snub nose and full lips. When we first meet her at home, Lady Macbeth wears a grey jump suit and has bare feet. When appearing in public, she’s always glamorous and highly ornamented, as though this is understood as one of her duties. She first wears a black and white houndstooth checked sleeveless jumpsuit, with patent black heels.
After Macbeth is crowned, he wears a high fashion black suit with leather cuffs, narrow tie and striped pointy brogues. Lady Macbeth wears a dress with the front and back of the bodice split to the waist, with delicate silver chains looping between the sections. The ankle-length, pearl-coloured skirt is translucent, allowing a view of a black, leotard-like layer beneath and bare legs.
We meet another soldier and his family: Macduff is bluff with light brown hair and a pale, clean-shaven, heart-shaped face. Lady Macduff is a doe-like young woman with long dark brown hair, parted in the centre. She wears a mustard coloured poloneck, heavy silver necklace, petrol blue leather pencil skirt with a thick black belt, a leapord-print suede jacket and black heels.
The three witches are women in their 20s, all wearing sleeveless, loose grey tops, leather-effect black leggings and nothing on their feet. With neutral expressions, the witches move in unison or in sequence. Their movements isolate one part of the body — wrist, shoulder, leg — twisting it sinuously or lifting it mechanically. They might, for example, drop their heads to one side, shift their weight forward, scoop low to touch the ground and then rise, leading with one shoulder, so that their movements seem unnatural, skewed and uncanny. The women differ in appearance: one has a sleek brown bob, another a halo of soft

4 black curls, the third long brown hair tied up in a ponytail. When they speak, the wit ches’ voices are synthesised, creating a disjuncture between the sound and their moving lips. In one repeated gesture, the witches put two fingers in their mouths, and then pull them down towards their hips, making a sucking sound; often while staring at a character, expressions at once hollow and defiant.
Sometimes one witch cradles a pale flesh coloured, fabric doll in her arms and another has a large pregnant belly. The witch with the brown bob also plays
Banquo’s son Fleance, disappearing inside a huge khaki parka, adopting a slouchy, teenage posture and holding a computer game handset.
Two young men play the Macbeths’ servants and also a major role in dance sequences. They both wear multi-coloured, silky, zip up jackets in vibrant, chaotic prints, over colourful shirts and purple or royal blue trousers. Their feet are bare. One man is very small, slight and pale with messy black curls and a beard; the other is tall and statuesque with very short dark hair and light brown skin. These dancers move in a more high-octane fashion, often doing repeated sequences of gestures that cross the whole space and create the atmosphere for scenes, including wild parties and battles.
At times, the whole company moves together in sequences that are related but not synchronised, weaving around one another and filling the space. Among them are the witches, blending in with the mortals.
The seating in the auditorium is on long benches, in rows sloping down to the stage. Around the stage is a silvery metal rectangular frame, about four metres high and eight metres wide. When we come in, the stage is open to us, but it’s dim and mysterious, a haze hanging in the air. A tunnel recedes into the distance, curving away to the left. The walls seem to be made of dark grey concrete panels, with lighter grey, curved panels suspended from the ceiling. The tunnel narrows away from us, with the floor sloping up and the ceiling sloping down to accentuate the illusion of the tunnel’s length. It stretches back for about

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10 metres, but looks longer. A mirrored strip runs along the left hand side of the ceiling from front to back
. In the smooth black floor there’s a rectangular grating in a hexagonal pattern. When the lights brighten, metallic flecks sparkle in the grey material of the walls.
Before the performance begins, the space suggests an anonymous service tunnel connecting high tech buildings. At the same time, the smoothly curved panels suspended from the ceiling, and the way the tunnel spirals into the distance of the space evoke modernist architecture inspired by natural forms like the interior of a snail ’s shell. During the performance, lighting and hidden elements in the scenery bring the space to life to suggest other rooms. The side walls contain concealed doors, five on each side. Bright light from other rooms flashes for a moment as characters open the doors, then is extinguished as they shut them again. One entire segment of the tunnel, about two metres deep, slides laterally to the left, bringing in a completely new room behind it. This sliding segment is used for various purposes: it provides a brief glimpse of a windowless torture room about two metres cubed, with tiled walls lit by a harsh greenish light. The sliding segment is also used to bring in and out characters, furniture and bodies with the efficiency of a production line. It suggests that beyond the world of the tunnel there is a vast machinery of government and war.
The witches also slip behind this wall, as if disappearing into a reality that is hidden from us.
From the floor, a panel about a metre wide and five metres long — set with short side facing us — smoothly rises to float above. Sometimes, it is just 20 cm above floor level, providing a raised platform for press conferences. At other times, it rises to waist-height. This reveals that the platform is supported by two hydraulic cylinders that cross diagonally, suggesting a modernist table design.
The platform becomes the table for a dinner hosted by Macbeth. Chairs of pale pink transparent acrylic are set around it. At the head is a plastic, golden chair, the buttoned seat and Louis XIV-style frame all sprayed in the same flat gold

paint. The effect is of someone splashing money about in the latest style, the luxury and frivolity of the furniture in striking contrast to the grey surroundings.
Please note that strobe lighting is used in the performance.
Direction Carrie Cracknell & Lucy Guerin
Design Lizzie Clachan
Costume Merle Hensel
Light Neil Austin
Music Clark
Sound David McSeveney
John Heffernan - Macbeth
Prasanna Puwanarajah - Banquo
Cassie Layton
– Lennox and Lady MacDuff
Mark Ebulué - Ross
Nicholas Burns
– Duncan and MacDuff
Ben Lamb - Malcolm
Anna Maxwell Martin
– Lady Macbeth
Thomasin Gülgeç – servant / dancer
Ira Mandela Siobhan – servant / dancer
Ana Beatriz Meireles - Witch
Jessie Oshodi - Witch
Clemmie Sveaas – Witch and Fleance
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