THE latest Royal Shakespeare Company production, Macbeth, is at Northern Stage in Newcastle from tonight. We talk to director Connall Morrison...
 TELL me something about your production of Macbeth. “It’s following various interlocked strands – the potency of faith, the savagery and consequences of male-driven war and the nature of evil. It explores many questions. To what extent is evil an abstract thing? Do we create our own evil? The evil in this play is hard to stop once unleashed. It’s exploring the karmic nature of evil actions, which come back to haunt you. In my production, Macbeth effectively creates the witches. The male circle unleashes violence and greed and ambition into the world and they pursue them and are ultimately consumed by them. The violence is initially aimed at women and children then becomes a tsunami, a whirlwind. It reaches back into the roots of belief and paganism, but is also relevant to today’s world of Bush and Blair – leaders who believe their actions are God-inspired. Our world is still full of potent images of morality and ethics. The play examines these issues as well as the failure of love between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. As the play progresses, it becomes more about the fact that man has created God, and it becomes more of a human tragedy. The evil, violence and masculine forces destabilise the world and the play ultimately becomes a plea for moderation. What have been your influences for this production? I have been influenced by evil (what evil is and how it manifests itself), our recent experiences of war and conflicts, the rise of fundamentalist religion, the paranormal and the supernatural. From Iraq and Palestine to Northern Ireland, there has been an upsurge in religion. We’ve seen an influx of Catholics from Eastern Europe. The paranormal is all over the TV and the Vatican has reintroduced exorcism rites. We actually arranged for a real exorcist to come along to rehearsals to talk to the company. You have a variety of dialects within your production. This is an integrated cast. The Scotland of the play represents the globe as well as a psychological place. The dialects and accents range from African and Scottish to Irish and ‘standard’ English. They come from places where there are strong conflicts – from the slaughter in Rwanda to the sectarian savagery in Northern Ireland. None of the characters with English accents are in the seat of power. Their voices are different and distant. Why did you want to direct Macbeth? It’s one of my favourite plays. The animated imagery unfolds throughout the play. It’s about performance, belief, ritual, energy, language and superstition. It’s the original chiller thriller. What does Patrick O’Kane bring to the central role? Patrick brings a questioning spirit and an interest in performance. We worked together on a production of Hamlet where he also played the title role, and I see this collaboration on Macbeth as a continuation of the exploration we began then. I think the two plays are closely interlinked. Both are very violent and the two characters have very good imaginations about the world of death. Patrick is strong, athletic, and has amazing energy and endurance. He is fascinated by the spiritual element of the play, has intelligence, curiosity, talent and a very strong and fit body. How do you feel about being paired with the Northern Stage’s production of the satire Macbett? I think it’s an inspired and ideal pairing. There’s black humour in Macbeth and Macbett is darkly absurd. Macbeth is at Northern Stage tonight and also on September 8, 13, 14 and 15. | 
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