The bloody tragedy about witches foretelling of a change in the Scottish leadership also features Yanna McIntosh as Lady Macbeth, with Dion Johnstone as Macduff, Gareth Potter as Malcolm, Timothy D. Stickney as Banquo and Geraint Wyn Davies as Duncan.
Feore, a Stratford veteran, is playing the role of Macbeth for the first time in his career. "To a certain degree you have to play everything else before you get to this," the actor said in a statement. "This is the distillation of all of Shakespeare's tragedy and evil. This is the thing itself, stripped as bare and as raw as it could be, and up until now I have been building the foundation where on I might start to think about my first Macbeth."
McAnuff, Stratford's artistic director and director of Broadway's current Guys and Dolls and Jersey Boys, stated, "It is not only the themes of the play, but its very subjects that are startlingly familiar: unsolved assassination leading to civil war, military invasion, regime change, moral cowardice, inbred corruption, unchecked dictatorial powers and the diseased politics of terror. Shakespeare's Macbeth is contemporary indeed, proof of the adage that 'things don't change, they just get more so.'"
The cast also includes Sean Arbuckle, Oliver Becker, Wayne Best, James Blendick, David Collins Karen Glave, Bruce Godfree, Kevin Hanchard, Douglas E. Hughes, Peter Hutt, John Innes, Roy Lewis, Amanda Lisman, Jake McCarroll, Araya Mengesha, Gordon S. Miller, Orene Poole, Jonathan Purdon, Cara Ricketts, Tom Rooney, Andrew Shaver, Andre Sills, Kolton Stewart, Sanjay Talwar, John Vickery, Asha Vijayasingham and Sophia Walker.
The creative team includes set designer Robert Brill, costume designer Paul Tazewell, lighting designer Michael Walton, composer Michael Roth, sound designer Todd Charlton, media designer Dustin O'Neill, dramaturg Robert Blacker, fight director Steve Rankin movement coordinator Lisa Shriver, stage manager Brian Scott and assistant stage managers A. Naomi Duncan and Marie Fewer. Macbeth runs until Oct. 31. Opening night is June 1. For tickets call the box office at (800) 567-1600 or visit www.stratfordshakespearefestival.com.
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The Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 season runs until Nov. 1, featuring Macbeth; West Side Story; Cyrano de Bergerac; A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Importance of Being Earnest; Julius Caesar; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; Three Sisters; Bartholomew Fair; Ever Yours, Oscar; Phèdre; The Trespassers; Rice Boy and Zastrozzi.
