South Bank Show to explore modern themes of Macbeth
Macbeth’s relevance in today’s society will be analysed in a special episode of The South Bank Show featuring contributions from Ian McKellen and Simon Russell Beale.
The programme, scheduled to go out on Sunday, July 8, will look at the themes of Shakespeare’s play and how they have “daily resonance in political and cultural life” 400 years after it was first performed.
Presenter Melvyn Bragg will visit Cawdor Castle in Scotland to set the scene and see how the play’s issues mirrors some of today’s, including religious intolerance and terrorism.
The show will also look at the characters of the play, including how Lady Macbeth is used as a label for powerful women such as Hillary Clinton and Winnie Mandela.
As well as contributions from McKellen and Beale, the show will also include Shakespearean academic Jonathan Bates and The Independent’s foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, who claims characteristics of Macbeth could be seen in Saddam Hussein and his tyrannical regime.
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