MCBTH is the story of Macbeth reduced to its naked essence. Five actors, six musicians and three (female) singers tell the tragedy of a man who loses more grip of reality with each murder he commits. Guy Cassiers and Dominique Pauwels (LOD) go in search of a new form of music theatre. Macbeth’s increasing bloodlust, the internalization of his moral struggle, his isolation, his loss of his sense of reality and the inferno of his imagination are translated into song and music. While Macbeth acquires more power and commits more murders, the medium of theatre begins to disintegrate and gradually a different genre sneaks in : opera. Macbeth is so absorbed in his struggle for power that the world around him is blurred. Opera symbolizes this blurring. The spoken word is ‘haunted’ by the singing. Music and song become partners in the story. They reveal a dimension that remains hidden and repressed in the speech. Through the intense interaction between word, image and song, MCBTH aims to expose something of this play’s cruel poetry.

After a series of novel adaptations, Guy Cassiers resolutely chooses for Shakespeare. Yet he clearly builds in references to previous work such as the Triptych of power or The man witihout characteristics. His analysis of power and the ruler and the relationship of the latter with reality remains the same.