Shakespeare's Macbeth

Join Julie Sutherland in a gripping journey through one of Shakespeare’s most terrifying and psychologically rich tragedies: Macbeth. Over the course of seven weeks, we shall linger in the play’s dusky shadows, engaging in a close reading that draws not only from the text but also from the dark corners of our own time. Macbeth is a study of ambition and conscience. It is a story of political power gained and held through violence. It is a tale of the terrible cost of prophecy and paranoia.

As we follow the tyrannical Macbeth and his cunning wife, Lady Macbeth, through their spiral into butchery and madness, we’ll explore how Shakespeare creates a world where moral boundaries dissolve and natural law gives way to supernatural terror.

Though drenched in the blood and fog of medieval Scotland, Macbeth speaks with unsettling clarity to the 21st-century landscape—where political rhetoric often veils ruthless pursuit, where public figures are shadowed by private demons, and where fear, spectacle and manipulation shape the fate of nations. In Macbeth’s world, as in our own, power is both intoxicating and deadly.

As we tread this blood-soaked ground together, perhaps we’ll see that Macbeth’s dagger, though imagined, still casts a long and chilling shadow.

** As a separate but complementary series, Julie Sutherland and John Allemand are offering a 2-week study of Joel Coen’s film adaptation of The Tragedy of Macbeth, beginning just before the play study begins. Participants in the Shakespeare play study may be interested in joining this corresponding event (Fridays, 1 & 8 August).

JOINING DETAILS:

• Recommended edition: Macbeth: The Arden Shakespeare; 3rd edition (26 Feb. 2015, editors Clark & Mason) ISBN-10: 1904271413
• Seven week study led by Julie Sutherland
• Wednesdays, 5.00-7.00 pm UK time
• 13 August – 24 September 2025
• £210 for seven meetings, including pre-session notes and supplementary resources.
• To share details of this study please use this link.