RNZ Ballet’s bold interpretation of Macbeth brings bloodshed and betrayal to the stage
From its sleek modern setting to a metal-inspired soundscape, choreographer Alice Topp’s Macbeth is her most ambitious ballet yet.
Morality tales in the world of ballet aren’t known for their nuance. Good fairy, bad fairy. White swan, black swan. Evil stepmother, innocent princess.
Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most complex psychological thrillers, gave choreographer Alice Topp a more ambiguous subtext to translate for the stage.
Her new work for the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) – a co-production with West Australian Ballet – reimagines the lord and his lady as a glamorous modern power couple caught up in a world of political conflict and corporate intrigue.
In a peak zeitgeisty move, the “three witches” aren’t portrayed as supernatural prophets but omnipresent media influencers whose intrusive presence fuels a creeping paranoia.
“One thing I really love about these villains, compared to some other Shakespeare stories, is that Macbeth is very much conscious he’s doing the wrong thing,” says Topp, who still has her mother’s schoolbook copy of the play inscribed with her maiden name.
“This feverish guilt plagues him, and the way he and Lady Macbeth deal with it drives them apart. So they start out as a partnership but end up isolated from each other, on their own paths to destruction.”
Born and raised in Bendigo, Topp began her professional career as a teenager with the RNZB. Her time with the company came to an abrupt end two-and-a-half years later when she fractured her foot landing a jump in rehearsals.
After a long and difficult rehab, she joined The Australian Ballet in Melbourne, where she danced for 14 years and is now a resident choreographer. In September, she flew to Wellington to workshop Macbeth with the RNZB, which has performed several of her pieces before.
She then spent Christmas in Germany, where rehearsals were being held for another of her new works, Algorithmus – commissioned by the Oldenburg dance company as part of a democracy-themed trilogy that opened in early January.
Left alone for a few days after everyone else headed home for the holidays, Topp immersed herself in Macbeth and admits feeling strangely moved by the fate of the couple, who will be performed by principal dancer Ana Gallardo Lobaina and soloist Branden Reiners.
“They’re still murderers, yet I feel an element of sympathy for them, which is conflicting,” Topp says. “You want to hate them for what they’ve done. But to see them suffer makes for a really riveting story.”
Macbeth has been performed as both a ballet and an opera by companies all over the world, its potent themes still resonant more than 400 years after it was written.
A new production of the play is being staged here in July by Auckland Theatre Company, with Sara Wiseman and Mark Mitchinson in the lead roles.
Topp’s sleek political landscape for Macbeth is matched by an equally dramatic soundscape, combining a pre-recorded original score by Christopher Gordon with a live string octet from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
The pair have collaborated before, and Topp loved the idea of introducing modern cinematic elements not typically associated with classical ballet. Think distorted, unnatural vocals and heavy-metal electric guitar.
“[Gordon] has done some horror films and some gaming, and it was really interesting discussing how we could bring some of that into what is such a deeply dark and murderous story.”
It’s been six years since Topp began developing the project with set and lighting designer Jon Buswell. During that time, the world has faced a global epidemic and a rising tide of geopolitical instability, adding fuel to the production’s powerful themes.
Interpreting Macbeth through the language of dance has been an exciting process for Topp, who instinctively translates words on a page into colour and movement in her head. Within the brutal tale, she’s also found moments of beauty.
“The glamour of the banquet [where the ghost of Banquo appears] should be a visually arresting scene – this beautiful dinner setting with chandeliers and candles amplifying the avalanche of destruction that follows,“ she says.
“For me, it’s finding those moments of beauty and passion and love between the moments of stress and heartache and grief.”
Returning to New Zealand to work with the RNZB has been a healing process for Topp after the trauma of suffering a serious injury at such a young age.
The damage took so long to repair that her contract was terminated (there’s a limit to how long a small company can carry a dancer who’s unable to perform).
“I continued to dance the piece for five minutes, but I couldn’t feel my foot,” she recalls. “When it became obvious it was broken, that was a difficult pill to swallow.”
After a lengthy rehab, Topp spent all her savings on a two-month tour of Europe, staying in hostels and going to cattle-call dance auditions. She didn’t land any of them.
The trip was great fun, she said in a recent interview, but it wasn’t good for her bank account. “And it certainly wasn’t good for my confidence. Let’s just say that.”
Today, breaking her foot and being fired is something for which she’s “remarkably grateful”.
When she joined The Australian Ballet in 2007, the setbacks she’d faced and her life experience beyond the cloistered world of dance were part of the reason she was encouraged to explore choreography.
Her first collaboration with the RNZB, a restaging of her award-winning contemporary ballet Aurum in 2022, was an emotional milestone.
“After the grief of losing what was my dream job, coming back was a real balm,” she says.
“I got the opportunity to not only make peace with the past but be reunited with a place that has such a big piece of my heart.”
- The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s world premiere of Macbethopens at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts in Wellington, February 25-28; then tours to the Auckland Arts Festival, March 4-7; Dunedin, March 13-14; and Christchurch, March 18-21.
Joanna Wane is an award-winning senior lifestyle writer with a special interest in social issues and the arts.