Showing @ King’s Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 05 Oct @ 19:30

Lady Macbeth is one of the most prominent female characters in theatre: her monstrous manipulation drives her husband to murder, condemning them both to overwhelming guilt and insanity. David Greig’s Dunsinane, directed by Roxana Silbert, uses the final scene of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a springboard for his darkly dramatic satire of the War on Terror. In it, Siobhan Redmond is Gruach, a new incarnation of Lady Macbeth, in many ways a different character entirely, but with a familiar fearless streak.

Siward (Jonny Phillips) is sent to Scotland to overthrow Macbeth and free Dunsinane from his tyrannous rule and put Malcolm (Sandy Grierson) on the throne. He arrives to discover the tyrant’s wife and Queen, Gruach, is still alive and her son, the rightful heir, is in hiding. Vowing not to leave until peace is restored, Siward embarks on a seemingly heroic battle for land, honour and peace, not realising the Queen has her own agenda for justice.

David Greig’s script is fiery with wit and typical self-deprecating Scottish humour. His voice is consistent and clear throughout: he doesn’t preach, but questions the motives of his characters, the feasibility, achievements and futility of war. Live music performed on the stage is used to accent and compliment the drama without overpowering it. Gruach is equally as ruthless as Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, but her ambition derives from a desire to protect and serve her country rather than her own self-interest. Her relationship with Siward drives the action as we continually see him grapple with his loyalties to England, Malcolm and his own personal beliefs. This is not a story of right and wrong, but rather an exploration of the complexities in the ‘grey area’ in between. The English invasion of Dunsinane parallels the West’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and invites the audience to view the War on Terror from a different perspective: peace is a process, not a finish line.

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