Shakespeare Double Bill – Twelfth Night and Macbeth – Spring season 2026

Join us for a spectacular Shakespeare double bill. Our BA Professional Acting second year students will be staging abridged adaptations of each play in a back-to-back double-bill.

This double bill is Directed and Adapted by Rachael Walsh, Designed by Mima Jupp and Michaela Dimitrova.

Twelfth Night – If music be the food of love, play on!

After a shipwreck separates her from her twin brother, Viola washes ashore in Illyria and disguises herself as a young man named ‘Cesario’. She enters the service of Duke Orsino, whom she promptly falls in love with. Orsino, however, is in love with the Countess Olivia and sends ‘Cesario’ to woo her on his behalf. This arrangement hilariously backfires when Olivia instantly falls for the disguised messenger, creating a complex love triangle. Meanwhile, Olivia’s household is plagued by mischievous servants who plot a cruel prank on the puritanical steward, Malvolio. The play is a joyful, fast-paced comedy filled with music, mistaken identity, gender confusion, and eventual, surprising happy endings.

Key Themes: Gender and Disguise; the Madness of Love; Social Order vs. Chaos; Appearance vs. Reality.

Age Suitability: Generally 12+, suitable for family viewing, though the themes of love and gender can be more fully appreciated by older audiences.

Macbeth: By the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.

Encouraged by a prophecy from three Witches and the ruthless ambition of his wife, Lady Macbeth, the Scottish general Macbeth murders King Duncan to seize the throne. This initial act of treachery spirals into a bloody tyranny as the paranoid new king kills anyone he sees as a threat, including his friend Banquo. Driven by guilt and fear, the Macbeths descend into madness—Lady Macbeth through sleepwalking and hallucinatory visions, and Macbeth through an unstoppable rampage of slaughter. The play is a psychological thriller and tragedy that follows the disastrous consequences of unchecked ambition and the ultimate downfall of a power-hungry couple.

Key Themes: Ambition and Guilt; Fate vs. Free Will; Appearance and Reality; the Corrupting Nature of Power.

Age Suitability: Generally 12+, due to the heavy themes of murder, violence, and psychological horror.

Buy one ticket and get to experience two of the Bard’s most famous plays.