His Out of Joint company’s current production of Macbeth is due to follow its national tour with a move to Wilton’s Music Hall in East London (Jan. 6-Feb. 5, 2005), and Stafford-Clark has turned to the airlines for inspiration.

As happens when you book with budget airlines, the longer in advance you book, the cheaper tickets are. Stafford-Clark is emulating this system for Macbeth. For each performance, the first 20 seats sold will go for £10, the next 20 seats will be priced £20 and on it goes, with a top price of £30.

The idea has been vaunted by others in the past, but this is the first time it has been practiced by a major theatre company in London. Stafford-Clark, who used to run the Royal Court and was widely tipped as an outside contender to take over the National Theatre when Trevor Nunn left (he was beaten by Nicholas Hytner), is seen as a director who has managed to remain on the cutting-edge of theatre for a long time.

His Macbeth is a partial promenade production and is set amidst modern-day African civil strife. Danny Sapani plays Macbeth, Monica Dolan his Lady and Sidney Cole is Macduff.

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