Macbeth kills King Duncan and becomes King of Scotland. Image caption, Macbeth has Banquo murdered. Macbeth remembers what the Witches said about Banquo’s sons becoming kings of Scotland.

Macbeth then became king of Alba, uniting the two provinces and creating the basis for what we now think of as modern Scotland. He was not, as in Shakespeare, a tyrant removed from the throne ...

Audiences have been spoiled for starry productions of Macbeth recently. Saoirse Ronan chose to make her London stage debut as Lady Macbeth in Yael Farber’s take on the Scottish play in 2021 ...

The truth is that if Macbeth had even a fraction of Hamlet’s philosophical turn of mind he never would have killed the king. But there’s an upside to Fiennes’ approach.

Encouraged by both the prophecy and his wife, Lady Macbeth, he takes the opportunity into his own hands by murdering King Duncan. His reign becomes steeped in paranoia and tyranny as he commits ...