Thursday, 19 Mar
18:15
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Times
6:15pm
Running Time 0 hours
Venue Studio, York Theatre Royal
Thu 19 Mar 2026 - Tue 24 Mar 2026
More Details + Share + Book TicketsMacbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth by Kirsty Housley
When an alarm is deliberately set off during their GCSE drama exam, a group of students find themselves in detention. As they struggle to navigate the seemingly endless tasks they’ve been set as punishment, questions are raised. Who set off the alarm and why? Will they ever get out of this detention? Will it cost them their GCSE? And why is Shakespeare still so popular?
So begins a meta deconstruction of the play as we move from classroom to theatre, artifice to reality. The performers switch between their characters and their real selves as they interrogate Shakespeare, the canon, the education system, the nature of theatre, and the world itself. They begin to wonder whether the classics really are that classic, or whether we might need to tell a different story altogether….
Kirsty Housley is a theatre maker working across direction, writing and dramaturgy.
Awards include the OSBTT Award and The Stage award for Innovation. She was RSC digital fellow in 2022. Recent writing includes Myth (RSC) and Woman and Machine (Royal Opera House).
As co-creator, work includes RISE: Bradford City of Culture opening ceremony (with Steven Frayne/Dynamo); The Long Goodbye (Riz Ahmed/Manchester International Festival) and Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (Traverse/Sundance).
Directing includes: Cutting the Tightrope (Arcola); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and The Encounter (both Complicite, as Co Director); Jekyll & Hyde (National Theatre); Mephisto: A Rhapsody (Gate); Tao of Glass (Manchester International Festival/Royal Exchange) and The Believers are but Brothers (Bush Theatre).
Dramaturgy includes Public Interest (Common/Wealth); ECHO (Royal Court), Horse (Matthew Herbert/Edinburgh International Festival); Avalanche (Barbican) and Misty (Bush/West End).
