RSC makes first foray into video games with 'landmark' Lady Macbeth creation

The Royal Shakespeare Company is to collaborate on the creation of a video game about Lady Macbeth.

New York-based game studio iNK Stories and the RSC have joined forces to present Lili, a Shakespeare-inspired venture that marks the RSC’s debut in the video game field.

Starring Zar Amir Ebrahimi as Lili, or Lady Macbeth, the game is co-produced by Paris-headquartered company Alambic Production and draws from its lead actor’s experience as an Iranian woman in exile.

The interactive story promises to immerse players in a "stylised, neo-noir vision of modern Iran", where surveillance under an authoritarian regime is a part of citizens’ daily life.

Macbeth’s witches are reimagined as hackers, with the Scottish tragedy updated to examine themes of technological domination and institutional violence.

The game is slated for release across gaming platforms later this year.

RSC co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey said: "From its first performance, Macbeth was always exhilarating: its sudden opening with thunder and lightning raises audience adrenaline levels and propels them as participants, not just spectators, into the jittery, action-driven narrative.

"Lili creates similar effects for audiences. As a storytelling medium, gaming today is what theatre has always been; a chance to explore worlds, inhabit story and experience something at once personal and communal. Centring this tense thriller around Lady Macbeth rather than her husband is radical and transformative. It turns the play’s questions around gender, identity and power inside out."

Vassiliki Khonsari, co-founder of iNK Stories, called the company’s partnership with the RSC a "landmark" endeavour and said the team was determined to "push the boundaries of storytelling".