Hicks, who played Coriolanus for the company in 2003, premieres his bloody thane at the RSC’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Sian Thomas, who also plays Gertrude in Hamlet later in the season, is Lady Macbeth, in a production directed by Dominic Cooke. The rest of the cast includes Pal Aron, Louise Bangay, Nathaniel Barber, Jack Chamberlain, Richard Cordery, Ian Drysdale, Jack Fielding, Callum Findlay, Meg Fraser, Ruth Gemmell, Grace Griffiths, Sean Hannaway, Oliver Hayes, Louis Hilyer, Michael G Jones, John Killoran, John McKay, Neil Madden, Forbes Masson, Lucy Morris, Tom Spackman, Jack Whitam and Clive Wood. Set designs are by Robert Innes-Hopkins with costumes by Tania Spooner. Peter Mumford supplies the lighting, with sound by Andrea Cox, music by Gary Yershon and fights by Terry King.

With Othello already in the repertory, Macbeth will be the second of the great Shakespeare tragedies to open this season. King Lear starring Corin Redgrave, Hamlet with Tony Stephens and Romeo and Juliet are set to follow.