Anne, who is Lady M to you?
Lady M is a powerful character in an extraordinary set of circumstances, stifled by having to live in her husband’s story rather than her own. Mare, Hadley, and I set her free so she could examine her experiences from her own perspective and craft her own narrative. She’s a three dimensional, living and breathing human being who helped her husband kill their king. We gave her the opportunity to explain herself.
There are too many female characters in Shakespeare plays living in exceptional circumstances who would certainly have a lot more to say about what they’re going through than Shakespeare gives them words and stage time to express. We chose to make Lady Macbeth the main character in the story, rather than her husband, Macbeth. Women in Shakespeare often get pushed to the side of a man’s story, and we wanted to disrupt that tradition.
There are too many female characters in Shakespeare plays living in exceptional circumstances who would certainly have a lot more to say about what they’re going through than Shakespeare gives them words and stage time to express.
What characteristics do you embody to create her?
After three years of co-writing, I’m returning, as an actor, to a beginner’s mindset to make sense of what we’ve created from a very personal and specific perspective. Because of this, I’m tackling Lady M using as much personalization as possible; I’m making sense of her words and behaviors by connecting them to my own lived experiences. I want her to be as honest, complicated, and dynamic as an actual human being. Then I’ll figure out how she behaves differently from me. (I’m guessing we’re more similar than I initially thought.) Words that describe our Lady M are generous, loving, grieving, and also vengeful, rageful, and (yes) ambitious. Killing the king is her way of responding to the grief, anger, and resentment she feels for the world and the people in power.
