Is Macbeth a hero or a villain? That is the central question posed by director Stephen Drover in Bard on the Beach's upcoming production of Shakespeare's classic tragedy. Set in a near-future dystopia, this 2026 version seeks to make the tale of ambition, murder, and moral collapse resonate with contemporary audiences.
A Hero's Descent
“At the beginning, Macbeth is presented as a sympathetic hero,” says Drover. “He’s offered an opportunity to advance his life and wrestles with whether he should take it. Most people can relate to moments when they’ve asked themselves, ‘Should I do this? Is it right? Is it wrong?’” However, as the play progresses, Macbeth transforms. “It stops being a quest story,” Drover explains. “Suddenly, it becomes a dragon-slaying story.”
Making the Familiar Immediate
One challenge for Drover is making elements like witches, prophecies, and regicide feel immediate rather than distant. By placing the story in a dystopian near future, audiences can more easily suspend disbelief. “What does scare us are the futures that seem to be rushing toward us: climate anxiety, social breakdown, moral decay, the feeling that the world is becoming increasingly unstable,” he says. “If we imagine a future where things really have gone badly wrong, audiences can accept that premise fairly easily.”
Drover's vision presents a post-technological world that is not necessarily superstitious. “There’s something unnerving about not being able to identify what’s happening,” he notes. “Hearing a noise in the night, and not knowing what it is, is often scarier than hearing something you already believe exists.”
A New Perspective on Duncan
The dystopian setting also changes how audiences view King Duncan. In Shakespeare's time, killing a king represented a cosmic disruption. In this version, Duncan's importance lies elsewhere. “The parallel we’re exploring is a world where things have gone badly wrong, but there is one person who offers hope,” says Drover. “One person who might have a solution. One person who might know how to make things better.” Rather than a divinely appointed monarch, Duncan becomes humanity's best chance at recovery, and his murder destroys the possibility of a better future.
Munish Sharma as Macbeth
Taking on the title role is Munish Sharma, who calls playing Macbeth a once-prophesied milestone. When Sharma was in university, a director wrote him a note predicting that one day he might play the Scottish king. More than 20 years later, the prediction has come true. The production runs on the BMO Mainstage from June 11 to Sept. 18 at Vanier Park in Vancouver. Tickets start at $30 at bardonthebeach.org.
