Macbeth as a 13yr Old Girl? Say More.

There’s a long-standing debate about what it means to produce your own interpretation of Shakespeare, and what the limits should be. How closely do you have to track the original plot? How many characters do you need to keep? Stuff like that. Tell me that the Lion King has elements of Hamlet and I’ll agree with you. Tell me that it’s a modern adaptation of Hamlet and we’ve got an argument on our hands. An evil uncle and redemption for a murdered father isn’t all you need to call yourself Hamlet.

Then again, I’m bored with every Macbeth interpretation between about a “powerful” husband and wife where all we do is swap out the environment. Media moguls, restaurant owners, samurai warriors, mafia. But can we break it down more? Do we have any interpretations of Macbeth as a woman? What about as a child? If we take the standard “theme” of Macbeth to be ambition, heaven knows that there are plenty of ambitious teenagers out there roaming high school hallways and plotting takeovers of everything from the cheerleading squad to student government.

What if Macbeth were a 13-year-old child star trying to make it big and Lady Macbeth her pushy stage mum? Throw in a séance and a geriatric make-up artist with a vision and, snap, crackle and pop, we’ve transported Macbeth to a television studio in 2006.

https://www.watoday.com.au/culture/theatre/what-if-macbeth-were-a-13-year-old-pop-star-audiences-are-about-to-find-out-20250812-p5mmal.html

And so we have Mackenzie, a project by Australian playwright Yve Blake. I’m intrigued by the changes here – the gender flip and the age shift most notably, but also Lady Macbeth as stage mom? Brilliant. Every Macbeth I can think of has them as a married (or close enough) couple. But what about the power a mother wields over her daughter, no matter how ambitious the daughter? And where does that daughter’s ambition come from, was it ever really hers? Or is it just planted there from behind the scenes by Mom whispering in her ear?

Sadly this fascinating new idea is limited to being a stage play in Sydney, Australia, so my chances of ever seeing it are pretty small indeed! But I wanted to shout it out here because I love the idea and wish I could see more.

How Do I Get This Lady Macbeth Game From The RSC?

https://mashable.com/article/royal-shakespeare-company-video-game-macbeth-lilli

I’ve seen multiple links about this upcoming Lady Macbeth game from the Royal Shakespeare Company, and I think I may have even posted about it in the past. But it seems closer now to reality, so I wanted to dig in deeper and see if there are some hints about how we’ll be able to play it. (Spoiler alert – alas, not yet.)

Lady Macbeth My Queen Hooded Sweatshirt

Lili has now been shown at Cannes and the Venice Film Festival, which I still don’t fully understand because isn’t it a videogame, not a film? Or is it really going to turn out to be a film that’s got just enough interactive elements that they’re pitching it as a game?

In Lili, one must enter a hacker’s den with a USB stick in hand, don headphones, and follow the poetic instructions of the Hecate collective — Macbeth’s three witches, reimagined here as hackers.

Ok, I’m with you so far. Are you this Lili character? She never actually interacts with the witches, so probably not.

Lili begins as an initiation, where the player is asked to take a vow and accept the hacker persona, giving you agency within a moral grey zone. One assumes control of the game’s surveillance technology to the fullest, as you have access to Lili’s personal documents like her marriage certificate, photos, and passport, and can tune into one of the three different CCTV cameras placed in her house as well as her phone and computer screens.

Ok, so we’re not Lili, we’re spying on Lili, which is cool from a game perspective. But I’m not sure who that makes us, and how it maps to Macbeth.

At one point, you are prompted by the Hecate witches to shut off Lili’s access to a YouTube makeup tutorial, just like the Iranian government can do it at any time. You can then control Lili’s VPN connection and, with that, the flow of information.

Again, interesting. Reminds me a little of the David Tennant / Patrick Stewart version of Hamlet, where they kept showing us angles through security cameras and really playing up the sense of paranoia. Here we’re taking that even further, it’s not just what Big Brother knows, it’s what power they have over things like your access to information.

But will we ever get to play this game? <starts skimming…>

The creators behind Lili are hoping to keep the momentum going to raise funds for the full version of the game,

Aw, man! So basically it’s still just a demo to be shopped around the festivals, and probably will be for some time. What a shame. The ideas sound fascinating, even if they’re not as directly related to Macbeth‘s text as one might hope. It does appear to be a VR game, regardless, so even if it does get made you’re presumably going to need an Oculus or something similar.

Still, we can hope! I’ve been doing the Shakespeare Geek thing for 25 years now and I’ve written about a whole lot of Shakespeare video games – some big, some small. Some made it out the door, some never did. Who knows where this one will end up.

Ink & Roses Chapter 4 – The Curtain Falls Silent

(London, 2 May 1592)

The roar that greeted Will as he stepped into the Curtain was not for him. It spilled from the bear-pit beyond the north wall—thirty dozen voices baying for blood, human and animal at once. He paused, manuscript satchel clutched to his ribs, and wondered how many of those throats would ever bother cheering a play.

Inside the play-yard, the atmosphere felt brittle. Rehearsals were meant to be private, but plague gossip had drawn a knot of groundlings who could not afford to wait for opening day. They leaned against the stage like sailors against a rail, hungry for any scrap of performance. Will felt their eyes rake across him—country cut of cloak, ink under fingernails, the faint smell of river fog still clinging to his boots. He straightened, trying to look as though he belonged.

Ned Alleyn stood centre-stage, one fist on his hip, the other brandishing a paper crown that drooped whenever he moved too quickly. “No, Master Shakespeare,” he called, not bothering to turn, “Tyrants do not whine. They declare.” He flung the line outward like a gauntlet:
“‘Now is the winter of our discontent…”
He stopped, grimaced, and let the crown slide off entirely. “And what manner of winter is this? A mild spring drizzle?”

Ink & Roses A Tudor Tragedy

Will felt heat crawl up his collar. He had laboured over that opening for weeks, trimming and tuning until each syllable sat like a bead on wire. He climbed the side stair, boots thudding against the hollow boards. “The winter is metaphor,” he said, keeping his voice low enough that only the stage heard. “A frost within the soul, not without.”

Alleyn raised one famous eyebrow. “Then give the soul a coat, sir. I freeze.”

A ripple of laughter travelled through the small crowd. Will swallowed it like vinegar. He was unbuttoning the satchel, ready to thrust pages at Alleyn, when a familiar laugh floated from the yard.

Kit Marlowe leaned against a pillar, moonlight catching the silver hoop in his ear. He looked as though he had been there for hours, drinking in every stumble. He lifted two fingers in lazy salute. “Trade you a line for a line, countryman,” he called. “‘Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front,’ and left it to you to wrinkle it again.”

Will’s pulse stuttered between irritation and relief. Part of him wanted to drag the man backstage and demand why he had vanished after the Bear Garden; another part felt the sudden, shameful comfort of a friendly blade in hostile territory. He descended the stair, meeting Kit at the foot of the stage.

“Deptford tomorrow?” Will murmured.

“Tonight, if you’ve the stomach,” Kit replied. “But first we mend this speech. Trust me, Ned will mouth whatever we give him, provided it sounds expensive.”

Before Will could answer, a trumpet sounded. Not the bright flourish that called playgoers to merriment, but the flat, official note used by town criers. The yard fell silent. A bailiff in city livery stepped through the playhouse gate, scroll in hand, voice cracking like winter ice:

“By order of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, all common plays and interludes are to cease forthwith, the plague having increased these four weeks past. Houses to be shut, gatherings dispersed. God preserve the city.”

He nailed the parchment to the door and was gone, boots splashing mud across the threshold.

A collective exhale, half groan, half gasp, swept the yard. Alleyn let the paper crown fall to the boards and trod on it without noticing. Somewhere a woman began to weep; somewhere else a groundling cursed and spat. Will felt the news hit him like cold water: no performance meant no gate money, no gate money meant no rent, no rent meant the long road home to Stratford with nothing in his purse but cherry-blossom promises.

Kit’s hand found his sleeve. “Breathe, countryman. There are other stages.”

“Where?” Will’s voice came out rough.

“Private halls. Noblemen’s chambers. Even,” Kit lowered his voice, “the coast, if you can stomach a ship.” He steered Will toward the tiring-house door, away from the rising tide of panic. “First we save your play from Ned’s boots. Then we save ourselves from the plague. And then,” his smile flashed, reckless, “we make our own audience.”

Behind them, the parchment flapped against the oak like a dying bird. The Curtain had fallen silent, but in Will’s ears the roar of the bear-pit still raged. Only now, he wondered if he and Kit were the bears, and London the crowd that would soon demand blood.


Next Time: A locked playhouse, a borrowed candle, and two poets rehearsing Richard III to an audience of rats. Chapter 5: “By Candle & By Quill.”


The playhouses are shuttered, the bear-pit still roars – would you risk the plague for one more line on stage, or take the first ship out of London?

A Portrait, A Locket, A Scorned Love Affair?

We’ve all heard the stories and theories about Shakespeare’s sexuality. Was he in love with a man? Was it the Fair Youth of the sonnets? If so, who was it? Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare’s patron? The only thing we know for sure is that we’ll never know for sure.

That doesn’t mean we can’t hang on each new development in the story like the most recently installment of our favorite reality tv drama, though!

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/hilliard-portrait-shakespeare-patron-secret-lover-2684052

This article from ArtNet brings up a fascinating locket. What’s in the locket? Why, a portrait of H.W. himself. Why’s that special? He was Earl of Southampton, there’s plenty of portraits of him.

Not like this.

Locket featuring a portrait of Henry Wriothseley

When the 2.25 inch treasure was discovered by art historians Elizabeth Goldring and Emma Rutherford, both were struck by the sitter’s unusually androgynous appearance, including his long golden curls, floral patterned jacket, and inviting blue eyes.

It’s difficult to look at a picture like this in 2025 and try to ponder what it meant 400 years ago. So, he’s wearing what he wants. So, he’s wearing his hair the length and style he wants. These days? No big deal. Back then? We don’t entirely know. Obviously, he sat for the portrait, so it wasn’t a completely hidden side of the man. He wasn’t afraid to be seen like this. Art historian Elizabeth Goldring suggests that the locket containing such an image, “must have been for a very, very close friend or lover.”

Wait, it gets better! Such a portrait apparently would have been painted on the back of a playing card. This one in particular used hearts. Awwww!

No no, not that! *This* portrait? If you take it out of its locket and look at the back, somebody has scribbled over the heart and turned it into a black spade! I know, right??

Shakespeare or no Shakespeare, that tells one great story. Do we know if it was a gift, or to whom? No. But we can clearly see that a heart was scratched out. Who would do that, and why? The “scorned lover” theory certainly seems valid. And who is the most well-known potential lover of Henry W.? Exactly.

What do you think?

Ready for Hamnet?

The much-anticipated movie adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet hits theatres this Thanksgiving, and the trailer dropped this week. Let’s watch!

Ok, thoughts?

I never actually read the book. It came out in 2016 as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series by Random House, a project to create modern novelizations of many Shakespeare classics by well-known authors. I did read Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood and Macbeth by Jo Nesbø, but something about Hamnet just didn’t work for me. I don’t think it really fit the pattern of the others, first of all. Are you retelling Hamlet, or are you imagining a life where Shakespeare’s son didn’t die? I wasn’t into a story about the latter. When tragedy happens in real life, I don’t find it a useful exercise to imagine how life might have been different. I don’t find it hopeful, I find it depressing.

But, that’s just me. Maybe I’ll try it again, before the movie? I definitely want to see the movie. I saw All Is True, and I loved All Is True – except the bits about Hamnet. I’m nothing if not consistent.

Ok! Let’s talk about the trailer. Somebody who’s read the book, fill me in, because right off … who is Agnes, and is she a witch? When we’re not blaring the soundtrack and the cinematographer is not taking inspiration from Millais’ Ophelia, the first bit of dialogue I got was, “If you touch people, you can see their future.” So, then, this is neither a reimagining of Shakespeare’s life if Hamnet had lived, nor a retelling of Hamlet? It’s a fantasy?

Is he wearing a cardigan?

Really, that’s about all their is to say about the trailer. We see repeated shots of Paul Mescal as Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as Agnes, and we hear a whole lot of soundtrack. We have no idea what the plot is, we get no meaningful dialogue or meet any supporting cast. It’s almost like the trailer’s made just for people who read the book, which isn’t how these things usually go. Usually the movie goes out of its way to appeal to the audience that hasn’t read the book.

So, people who’ve read the book, what do you think?