Publisher Description
Tony Award winner Alan Cumming in his riveting solo interpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Star of stage, film and television Alan Cumming delivers a virtuoso performance playing every role in the National Theatre of Scotland’s bold presentation of Shakespeare’s chilling tale of desire, ambition, and the supernatural.
This radical reimagining of one of Shakespeare’s most deeply psychological plays is set in a psychiatric unit in which Cumming is the lone patient. Channeling the story of Macbeth, he is inhabited in turn by each of the characters of the drama, including some of Shakespeare’s most complex and troubled creations.
Cumming’s one-man interpretation of Shakespeare’s Scottish play comes to audio directly from acclaimed limited stage engagements with the National Theatre of Scotland in Glasgow and at New York’s Lincoln Center. Directed for audio by the stage production’s renowned directors, this exclusive studio recording of Cumming’s dazzling solo performance captures the excitement, passion and poetry of a wildly original tour-de-force that is destined to become theatrical legend.
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About the Authors
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today.
Folger Shakespeare Library is the world’s leading center for Shakespeare studies.
Located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, it is home to the world’s largest
and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of
other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art. The Folger opened
in 1932 as a gift to the American nation from Henry Clay Folger and his wife
Emily Jordan Folger. It is administered by a Board of Governors under the auspices
of Amherst College, Henry Folger’s alma mater.
About Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming is an award-winning actor, singer, writer, producer, and director. He recently starred in an acclaimed one-man staging of Macbeth on Broadway and appears on the Emmy Award–winning television show The Good Wife. Cumming won a Tony Award for his portrayal of the Emcee in the Broadway musical Cabaret. He is the winner of the 2015 Audie Award for Best Autobiography/Memoir narration and Best Narration by the Author Award as well as six Audiofile Earphones Awards. He hosts PBS Masterpiece Mystery and has appeared in numerous films, including Spy Kids, Titus, X2: X-Men United, The Anniversary Party, Any Day Now, and Eyes Wide Shut.