Pioneering theatre company Filter bring their daring new production of Macbeth to the Everyman, using their ground-breaking approach to sound to explore the mind of the murderous thane. This exhilarating take on Shakespeare’s psychological tragedy will be on at the award winning theatre from Tuesday 17th to Saturday 21st February.

Filter’s lively, kaleidoscopic and horrific version of Macbeth fuses Shakespeare’s corrosive thriller about ambition and sanity with innovative sound and music to take audiences to the epicentre of the “heat-oppressed brain”. Three weird sisters demarcate an area on stage. They operate a strange collection of electronic musical apparatus. Macbeth is invited in to play.

This marks the first of three Shakespearean productions at the theatres this season: also at the Everyman, Nick Bagnall’s riotous production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream comes to cause havoc in March, while Northern Broadsides’ King Lear sees Jonathan Miller direct Barrie Rutter as the aging ruler at the Playhouse in April.

Famed for their idiosyncratic sound design, Filter’s recent recreations of classic texts, including Three Sisters (Lyric Hammersmith), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (National Theatre) and Twelfth Night (R.S.C.) have toured the U.K. and internationally to great acclaim. Founded in 2001, the company comprises of two actors and a musician. By fusing performance with integrated live music and sound, Filter brings an immediacy and exhilarating modernity to their productions.

Filter’s co-Artistic Director Oliver Dimsdale, who also plays Macbeth, said: “The only thing we ever know for sure with every Filter project is that we approach the heart of Shakespeare’s plays with a text, and a strong musical angle – compositionally and in terms of sound design. In our classic text shows we like to allow ourselves the freedom to explore, play and innovate – it’s a balancing act between honouring a playwright’s original intentions, whilst making shows that are scrupulously twenty-first century in their own right.”

Alongside Oliver, whose stage and screen credits include The Dead Wait (The Royal Exchange, Manchester Evening News Best Actor Award), and He Knew He Was Right (B.B.C.), the cast includes Geoffrey Lumb (Twelfth Night, Filter; Luther, B.B.C.), Poppy Miller (The Jew of Malta, Almeida Theatre; Map And Lucia, B.B.C.), musician Alan Pagan (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Filter; Masque of The Red Death, Punch Drunk), Alison Reid (Cyrano De Bergerac, Bristol Old Vic; Two Gentlemen Of Verona, R.S.C.) and Paul Woodson (Mobile 4, Orange Tree; Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s Globe). Playing Banquo is Liverpool born Victoria Moseley, a former member of the Everyman Youth Theatre, who went on to play the role of Alice in the rock ‘n’ roll panto Alice In Boogie Wonderland at the Everyman in 2001.

Tickets for Macbeth are available from the Everyman Theatre Box office on Hope Street. Tickets are priced from £12-£20.