Lady Macbeth moves to Iran as RSC project turns Shakespeare character into video game star
THE Royal Shakespeare Company is entering the gaming world with a partnership which turns Lady Macbeth into a video game character living in modern Iran.
Working with iNK Stories, a New York-based game studio, the partnership has created Lili which stars Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir as Lady Macbeth (Lili).
The game is described as ‘a screen life thriller video game which gives players access to Lady Macbeth’s personal devices, combining the skill and artistry of theatre and film to tell this interactive story’.
The gameplay, set against a backdrop of surveillance and authoritarianism, blends 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.
Lili also features Macbeth’s witches, reimagined as hackers.
Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, RSC co-artistic directors said: “From its first performance, Macbeth was always exhilarating: its sudden opening with thunder and lightning raises audience adrenaline levels and propels them as participants, not just spectators, into the jittery, action-driven narrative.
“Lili creates similar effects for audiences. As a storytelling medium, gaming today is what theatre has always been; a chance to explore worlds, inhabit story, and experience something at once personal and communal.
“Centering this tense thriller around Lady Macbeth rather than her husband is radical and transformative. It turns the play’s questions around gender, identity and power inside out.”
Lili is in development and expected to be released later this year.