The Tony Award-winning director takes EW through his notes ahead of the show’s Broadway bow this spring.
“We said, ‘Hey, afterOthello, should we doMacbeth?’
It’s the first words I ever wrote down about the play.
Tony-winning director Sam Gold’s table while working on a Broadway revival of ‘Macbeth’.
“I took this photo while getting ready for dinner,” he said.
“I have a pre-dinner beer, and I’ve dropped my silverware.
That’s sort of the right way to encounter the play.”
‘Macbeth’ director Sam Gold.Noam Galai/WireImage
So it makes sense that “sauce” is one of the notes he jotted down.
“It’s a very visceral play.
Lots of food, lots of viscera, lots of animal and human sauce.”
Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga, who will star in ‘Macbeth’ on Broadway in 2022.Greg Williams
I wanted to check that that I forefronted those things.”
“It’s a word that had a lot of play during the time Shakespeare was writing.
There’s a sense of equivocation going on at all times.
Everything is matched with its opposite.
The morality and meaning and truth and everything is not in balance.
And equivocation is also a political word.
It’s the political landscape we’ve all just lived through, which is to devalue truth.”
The Hurly-burly
The other book on the table isHallucinogens and Shamanismby Michael J. Harner.
“How do we enter altered mental states for spiritual reasons?
It also connects to that ‘No Sleep.’
When you don’t sleep, that can enter you into an altered mental state.
So I’ve been reading a lot about that, about shamanism and spiritual practices in various cultures.
It’s a way into the witches.”
“She has a gorgeous relationship to Shakespeare,” he said.
“Marriage is a domestic microcosm for the way power plays out in society.
It becomes a poetic microcosm to explore power in larger ways.”
Macbethbegins previews at the Longacre Theatre on March 29, ahead of an opening night set for April 28.
Ticket information and further details can be found at the show’swebsite.
For more from our2022 preview,order the January issueofEntertainment Weeklyor find it on newsstands now.
