2005-2006 Season

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Eve Shapiro

Set Design, Christopher Barreca
Costume Design, James Scott
 Lighting Design, Michael Chybowski
Fight Direction, Felix Ivanov
Sound Design, Fitz Patton
 Voice and Text Consultant, Wendy Waterman

Matt Bradford Sullivan and Keith Eric Chapelle in Macbeth. Photography by Richard Termine.

The TONY honored Acting Company presents Macbeth, the last of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. Combining swift action and soaring poetry, we follow one man’s rash power-play for the crown. Ambition infects Macbeth’s brain like a virus upon hearing three witches predict that he will one day be king. Spurred on by his equally ambitious wife, he murders the good King Duncan. One evil deed leads to the next, unleashing an escalating cascade of violence, guilt, sleeplessness, paranoia and madness.

Macbeth reflects on his actions in some of the most sublime soliloquies in the Shakespearean canon as he rushes headlong towards his demise. This is a poisonous world where, as the witches intone at the very start, “fair is foul and foul is fair,” where values are reversed and nothing is what it seems to be. From the prophecies of the Weird Sisters to the silent appearance of Banquo’s ghost, the supernatural plays a central role in this historically-based tragedy. But so does psychology and Shakespeare focuses a laser like intensity on the disintegrating mental state of the murderous king. With almost no diversionary subplots, Macbeth is thrillingly direct in its stark demonstration of the corrupting power of evil.

The Acting Company has performed 122 productions for more than two million people in the United States, London, Australia, Russia and Eastern Europe. Its Education Programs -- including master classes, student matinees and weeklong artistic residencies -- have reached tens of thousands of students. The Acting Company was founded in 1972 by John Houseman and current Producing Artistic Director, Margot Harley, with the first graduating class of The Juilliard School's Drama Division. Winner of the Obie, Audelco and Los Angeles Critics Awards for excellence, The Acting Company is a 2003 TONY Honoree for Excellence in Theater.

See for yourself what makes The Acting Company the most respected and praised touring repertory theater in America.

Click here to read a review of MACBETH