Director Adele Thomas on Tobacco Factory’s ‘Macbeth’

Tobacco Factory Theatres kicks off its very first Factory Company season later this month (February 22) with a brand new production of Macbeth directed by Adele Thomas  (National Theatre, Royal Court, Shakespeare’s Globe).

For this groundbreaking season (Macbeth will be followed by TFT’s artistic director Mike Tweddle directing Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge), Tobacco Factory Theatres will become home to its own ensemble. The season will also incorporate a series of events connecting the productions with the local community, artists and audiences.

Macbeth, say the Company, “speaks to a world we find ourselves living in now; a world in which politicians lie to our faces but no one can plaster over the truth that the planet is threatening to turn on us.

“Exposing the fragility of the human notions of language and destiny, Macbeth conjures something bloody and primal. Battling elemental forces and their own blind ambition, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are at odds with the natural world, haunted by three unearthly witches and inspired to commit terrible, unnatural acts. Their quest for power for power’s sake leads their bodies and minds to turn against them.”

Here’s Adele to tell us more.

“a world in which politicians lie to our faces but no one can plaster over the truth that the planet is threatening to turn on us.” Interesting. Are you finding more (than most productions) in the text of Macbeth about the environment? As such, does this increase the play’s relevance to our modern world?
I’m really interested in the cognitive dissonance of living in the world we live in today. The #Metoo movement is interesting and important in so many ways. But perhaps the most interesting thing about it is not that it’s revealed anything new to anyone – we all knew what was going on – but rather in how it revealed our ability to forget we knew.

‘Macbeth’ rehearsal pics: Mark Dawson Photography

Likewise, for years scientists have been saying that the way we humans have been spending our time on this planet has been to its detriment, that it simply isn’t sustainable. Yet, we are all of us able to live day to day without acknowledging that fact. We can shut the part of our brains off that knows we live in mortal danger of environmental collapse and just carry on as if nothing’s wrong. It’s something that makes human beings extraordinary and incredibly special but it’s also a form of mass insanity – a shared delusion.
It’s fascinating how Shakespeare was already onto this even in 1605. I don’t mean environmental collapse, but how humans have an amazing ability to believe the truth they want to believe in, even in the face of contrary evidence. When Macbeth is greeted by the Witches he could ask a number of questions about the prophecy that he will be king: what do I have to do this? Who will suffer in the event of my rise to power? What about Malcolm? But he doesn’t. He exercises a kind of confirmation bias. This confirmation bias feels symptomatic of how all humans find a way to cope with the world: by believing what they want to believe, rather than interrogating the awkward truths of being alive.

Macbeth director Adele Thomas. Pic: Kirsten McTernan

“Exposing the fragility of the human notions of language and destiny”: can you explain this a bit more?Language is uniquely human: the manifestation of the moment when we developed a concsciousness and needed a way to express our sentience. It’s also very human because, as a result of this switching on of a higher consciousness (an awareness of our mortality, a fear that there is nothing beyond the life we know), language is the tool we have developed to twist and bend the world to our means.
But like all tools, it can be used against us and the Witches understand this. They use the human addiction to language against Macbeth in the play. They equivocate: they say something that on the surface seems like it is saying one thing but is in fact saying something completely different. They use Macbeth’s susceptibility to one truth against him. So in this way language is fragile.
The notion of destiny is equally a construct of human beings’ need for narrative and meaning that comes with the evolution of language. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth feel that they deserve the crown because their narrative deserves it: “the greatness that is promised thee.” But again this is a fragile idea, and the play quickly shows how placing your faith in notions of narrative is futile. You can’t control your future even if you have been told what it is.

How much of the tragedy stems from Macbeth’s (and Lady Macbeth’s) overweening ambition, and how much from a wider society that’s somehow out of joint?
Ah ha! I can’t really answer this because I hope that we have been delving into parts of the Macbeth’s backstory that elucidate the idea of why they want to be king and queen, and to reveal it now might be too much of a spoiler to anyone coming to see the play.
But I can say that, the more I read the play, the less important ambition seems to me as their motive to murder. I think their ambition is a bit of a red herring, and that there’s more complex, traumatic and interesting stuff going on beneath the surface.

Tell us a little about the casting for this Macbeth.
It’s a very small company for a play like this, which is down to economic necessity really, but as with all creative restrictions it’s worked out brilliantly. It means that there are ten really fully developed characters rather than eight great characters and five floaters.
One of the great surprises from our first week of rehearsals was how – by this necessity to conflate characters – one of my favourite roles became the gentlewoman maidservant to Lady Macbeth! Recent Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduate Laura Waldron has made the part (which conflates all servant and messenger roles) into this amazing character who is a kind of chorus on the increasing insanity of the play. We’d never have had that if we had three people playing those roles.

It’s so fantastic to have such a large contingent of local actors in the cast. It was an unusual casting process for me because, while I didn’t know a lot of the local actors from Bristol, I had to keep the roles fairly flexible. So lots of local actors came in to audition with no character in mind and then it became obvious that there were some great natural fits. Of course there were some heartaches when working with such a small cast and there were way more brilliant actors that came in to audition than I could accommodate. For example, I saw at least five young male actors who could have made a great Malcolm, but you can’t have five young males in the company of a play that need a range of ages.
As to the main players, I’ve worked with Katy [Stephens] before and there’s no one I’d want more to play Lady Macbeth. She’s born for the role. And as for our Macbeth [Jonathan McGuinness] – he’s just so deeply human and you feel amazing empathy for him even at his worst. I’m so bloody lucky!

“Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are at odds with the natural world”: can you say a little more?
Actually, everybody is. They’re all guilty, again, of this confirmation bias. Even Duncan. There’s a genius moment in the play in which he says how furious he is that he is that he was betrayed by the Thane of Cawdor, a man in whom he had had an “absolute trust” and then the very next second he greets Macbeth as his golden boy, when in fact he’s the man who will kill him. Everybody ignores their instincts in favour of believing what they want to believe, not questioning motives, not scratching beneath the surface.

Macbeth is at Tobacco Factory Theatres from Thursday, Feb 22 to Saturday, April 7. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/macbeth

Read more: Looking ahead to the first Factory Company season