Royal Shakespeare Company reimagines Macbeth for video game users
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A video game based on William Shakespeare’s Macbeth will mark a first for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in adapting the British playwright’s classic work for contemporary audiences. Lili, which is currently in development and slated for release later this year, stars 2022 Cannes best actress winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi as Lady Macbeth (Lili) in the story which mixes witchcraft, prophecy, and murder.
The RSC have collaborated with US game studio and publisher Ink Stories to create the interactive game, set in a “stylised, neo-noir vision of modern Iran, where surveillance and authoritarianism are part of daily life”. Amir Ebrahimi, who won the Cannes prize for her role in Holy Spider, is said to have drawn from her lived experience as an Iranian woman in exile, who confronted authoritarian gendered oppression.
The game is billed as blending “live-action cinema within an interactive game format, giving players the chance to immerse themselves in the world of Lady Macbeth and make choices that influence her destiny”. “Macbeth’s witches are reimagined as hackers, with surveillance cameras and cyber-infiltration putting the player at the heart of the story and giving them a unique perspective into the world of the play.
“This modern twist on the Macbeth story explores themes of technological domination, the manipulation of information, and institutional violence, reflecting the dark realities of inequities in our digital age,” a release stated. Sarah Ellis, the RSC’s director of creative innovation, told the PA news agency that she is “delighted” to be adapting the play to “reach gamers and audiences of the future”.
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