17/03/2026
To begin at the beginning:
A long time ago (ie 1985) I wrote a BA dissertation suggesting tha the accepted script of Macbeth wasn't written, as is generally accepted, in 1606 as a piece of flattery for King James, but actually written around 1593 and *then* had another act added to it in 1606 to turn it into a piece of flattery for King James - but also (crucially) a less good play - in fine, Shakespeare added all the Banquo plot to a perfectly good original because the Stuarts had cooked up this nobleman named Banquo as the founder of their royal house.
(There never was a Banquo - the real founding Stuart had been a bloke called Walter Fitz Alan, who was a Breton mercenary, and not Scottish at all - 'Stewart' was a corruption of his job title, which was steward, so you;ll see why they made something else up)
Anyway, it wasn't a very good dissertation and I only got a 2:2 out of it, but the theory still seemed perfectly sound to me and, while I had produced Macbeth while at college, it had only been a very partial success, and I wanted another go at it - using a script revised in the light of the theory.
The best way to address both issues seemed to be to make a movie.
'Hail Macbeth, that shalt be king'...Hero of a post-apocalyptic dystopia, Macbeth's decision to ditch loyalty for personal power destroys everything he holds...
