Alan Cumming To Play Both Macbeth and His Scheming Wife

Scottish actor Alan Cumming will demonstrate his versatility with a one-man production of Shakespeare's Macbeth in which he will portray both the titular character and Lady Macbeth, his cunning wife, reports The Guardian.

Cumming, who received an OBE in 2009 for services to the arts and for his gay rights activism, reveals he's been obsessed with the tragic play since he performed in it earlier in his career in Glasgow.

"I had this idea I wanted to swap the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, because there are so many things about gender, I thought it would be a really exciting idea to flip that," Cumming says.

"So we did this reading like that, in New York, and Andy Goldberg [one of the show's directors] had this idea I should just play all the parts," he says. "Never one to refuse a challenge, we decided to do it."

The new production, produced by the National Theatre of Scotland, will run at the Glasgow Tramway next June before transferring to the Lincoln Center in New York. Directed by John Tiffany and Goldberg, the production marks the roaming company's first attempt at a Shakespeare play.