FROM THE YORK PRESS

The notorious Scottish Play, Macbeth, will receive the Shakespeare4Kidz treatment at the Grand Opera House in York on January 27 at 10.30am and 1.30pm.

“It’s full of weird witches and spooky spells that make Harry Potter and his friends look like amateurs – and there are bloody battles, gruesome ghosts and even a forest which moves.,” says writer/director Julian Chenery.

In response to many theatre folk believing the play to be jinxed, a host of celebrities has sent the company good-luck wishes, including West End actor Jonathan Pryce, who had his own bad-luck stories to tell.

“When I played Macbeth in Stratford, before the first night Lady Macbeth had an accident and fractured her collar bone,” he wrote. “I fell head first down the stairs on stage and for the first time forgot my lines in the middle of a soliloquy. At the Barbican I got stuck in the lift with the three witches and was rescued just in time to make my reappearance.”

Shakespeare4Kidz has toured Macbeth five times since its premiere in 2000, and not without bad luck making its mark that first year. “The famous curse is something we’ve had our share of in the past,” recalls Julian. “In the autumn of 2000 we had incessant rain for three months which affected all of our get-ins and get-outs; a national fuel strike which made it nigh impossible to move the production around the UK; the actor playing Banquo hit his head on the windscreen of the cast coach; the actor playing King Duncan went down with Bell’s Palsy, making half his face freeze; and one of the stage crew walked into a door and fractured her skull. Apart from that, the show was a huge hit and has remained immensely popular ever since.”

For his Shakespeare4Kidz plays, Julian uses the most famous lines from the original texts, weaving them into modern language and then adding song and dance. “The result is a two-hour entertainment which everyone – even the youngest primary children – can understand,” he says. “For Macbeth, the whole plot is retained and all the major characters are there to tell the blood-soaked story of the murderous Scottish warrior, who, egged on by the prophecies of three weird witches and the ambitions of his evil wife, removes every obstacle in his path until he can seize the throne for himself.”

Playing the role of Macbeth for the third – and hopefully lucky – time is Jason Lee Scott, who will lead a 14-strong company in York.

Tickets can be booked on 0844 847 2322 or 0844 372 7272 for group bookings.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ON THE YORK PRESS WEBSITE