Macbeth through director David Wilson’s eyes, featuring animation by Ian Miller

Director David Wilson has released a new short film for the British Council, reinterpreting Act 1, Scene V, from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The two-minute film begins with actress Vicky McClure as Lady Macbeth in a contemporary suburban setting, as something menacing rushes through the woods towards her. The film gathers tension until halfway through, when it breaks into an animation by Ian Miller (still narrated by Vicky) depicting a grotesque Lady Macbeth whose skin falls from her bones to convey her rotten soul.

The film is a Colonel Blimp film for the British Council’s Shakespeare Lives season, a global programme of events celebrating Shakespeare’s work on the 400th anniversary of his death in 2016. David launched the film on his Twitter account today, saying the British Council gave him “free reign to interpret a scene of Shakespeare.”