MACBETH

“What’s new in this Shakespeare? What makes it so different? In Declan Donnellan’s staging there are no daggers and no blood. It is austere and concise, a pure wonder”.

Marcos Ordónez, El País   “I thought that Macbeth was about a man and a woman who conspire to murder an old man. But now I realize that that forms part of the prologue. The play really begins when both of them realize what they have done and, more particularly, how they try to deny that they understand what they have done. It’s more primitive than conscious. Conscience is quite a complex reaction, connected with morality and our sense of good and evil. I am speaking about something much more basic; simply their realizing what they have done.”   Declan Donnellan, talking to Miquel Berga, a professor at the University of Girona.     Cheek by Jowl, created in 1981 by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, has produced some of the most brilliant works of the contemporary stage. The classics are his hallmark: Shakespeare, Middleton, Webster, Restoration Comedy (1660‑1700), European classics (from Sophocles to Racine to García Lorca). His repertoire also includes contemporary works, such as Angels in America and Homebody/Kabul, by Tony Kushner, or rediscoveries and forgotten texts such as A Family Affair by Ostrovsky. Among this company’s great achievements is having dismantled the outdated casting systems of the British theatre. While in the 80s multiracial Britain hesitated to cast a black actor to play Othello, Cheek by Jowl, with its integrational repertoire for Fuenteovejuna at the National Theatre in 1989, brought a new cultural and political conscience to the theatre of his country. The company has performed in over 300 cities in 40 countries on six continents and has received a great many international awards.     MEETING WITH THE AUDIENCE   With Declan Donnellan and the artistic team of the play.   Naves del Español - Matadero. Saturday, June 5, 18.30h. Admission free until venue capacity is reached