In order to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare, the Shakespeare's Globe joined hands with the Hong Kong Arts Festival to commission Tang Shu-wing to do a new interpretation of Macbeth, the Bard's darkest and most shocking tragedy. It was premiered at the Globe in 2015, followed by a rerun in the 2016 Hong Kong Arts Festival.

 

A modern couple dreams that they enter the universe of Macbeth in the buried past of ancient China, assuming the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and encountering different characters in the play.

 

When Three Witches tell Macbeth that he is destined for the throne of Scotland, he and his wife kill the first man standing in their path, the virtuous King Duncan. But to maintain his position, Macbeth must keep on killing – first Banquo, his old comrade-in-arms; then, as the atmosphere of guilt and paranoia thickens, anyone who seems to threaten his tyrant's crown.

 

On leaving the dream, where the couple has experienced the dark side of humanity, they contemplates their places in this contemporary realm of turbulence.