‘Macbeth’, fully ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It was probably first performed in 1606. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy. James VI and I was a patron of Shakespeare’s playing company, and some people say that ‘Macbeth’ is the play that most clearly indicates Shakespeare’s relationship with him.

In the play, Macbeth is a Scottish general under the rule of King Duncan. Three witches tell Macbeth that he will become King of Scotland. Macbeth is spurred by his ambition and his wife, murdering Duncan and acceding to the throne. His reign is bloody and tyrannical and is ended by the combined forces of Scotland and England.

Could Lady Macbeth have been a Tantric who teamed up with the witches to weave a spell on her husband? Alyque Padamsee believes she was. It all started with a book called Shakti -The Feminine Force that Padamsee had read some 20 years ago. The book talks about Tantra and its proximity with witchcraft and he immediately thought of Macbeth.

So he wanted to incorporate this tantric angle into the story and show that all of Lady Macbeth’s motivations for her actions were fuelled by her Tantric beliefs. So the director Alyque Padamsee and the Producer Raëll Padamsee thought of taking it a step further, as they brought aboard a real-life tantric advisor, Subhojit, who worked very closely with Alyque over his vision of the play, and had his advice on what could and could not be done, the chants, the negative and positive vibrations, etc.

Fun Facts : Delhi-based theatre actress Lushin Dubey was cast in the key role. Alyque had been thinking of staging the play for 20 years but wasn’t able to cast the right actress. He saw a solo performance of Lushin’s, 18 months before staging the play and fell in love with her acting. She has a tremendous voice and combines power with sensuality, which is the core of Tantra. As Lushin lived in Delhi, she would fly in to Bombay just for all the rehearsals and shows, which was a feat in itself.

This production also had many other notable names from their respective industries like Roger Periera, Vijay Crishna, and Gerson Da Cunha.

The key visual for all publicity, including posters, hoarding, etc was specially designed by renowned and respected artist, Akbar Padamsee.

This being such a huge play, the producer, Ms. Raell Padamsee, decided to get on board the renowned Indian Fashion designer, Mr. Tarun Tahiliani.