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denimbex1986 · 10 months

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'David Tennant and Cush Jumbo walk into the Donmar Warehouse’s offices, above the theatre’s rehearsal rooms in Covent Garden, and sit down on a sofa, side by side. Tennant has that look his many fans will instantly be able to call to mind of being at once stressed – with a desperado gleam in his eye – yet mischievously engaged, which has to do with the intelligence he applies to everything, the niceness he directs at everyone. He is wearing a mustard-coloured jersey and could be mistaken for someone who has been swotting in a library (actually, he has been rehearsing a fight scene). If I am right in supposing him to be tense at this mid-rehearsals moment, I know – from having interviewed him before – that it is not his way to put himself first, that he will crack on and probably, while he’s at it, crack a joke or two to keep us all in good spirits. But some degree of tension is understandable for he and Jumbo are about to perform in a play that explores stress like no other – Macbeth – and must unriddle one of the most dramatic marriages in all of Shakespeare’s plays.

This is star billing of the starriest kind. Tennant, at 52, has more triumphs under his belt than you’d think possible in a single career (including Doctor Who, Broadchurch’s detective, the serial killer Dennis Nilsen in Des, and the father in There She Goes). Jumbo has been seen on US prime time in The Good Wife and The Good Fight and in ITV’s Vera. But what counts is that each is a Shakespeare virtuoso. Jumbo, who is now 38, won an Ian Charleson award in 2012 for her Rosalind in As You Like It and, in 2013, was nominated for an Olivier for her Mark Antony in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Julius Caesar. More recently, she starred as a yearningly embattled Hamlet at the Young Vic. A dynamo of an actor, she is described by the former New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley as radiating “that unquantifiable force of hunger, drive, talent usually called star power”. Tennant, meanwhile, who has played Romeo, Lysander and Benedick for the RSC, went on to embody Hamlet and Richard II in performances that have become the stuff of legend.

Jumbo settles herself cross-legged on the sofa, relaxed in her own body, wearing a white T-shirt, dusky pink tracksuit bottoms, and modestly-sized gold hoop earrings. She looks as if she has come from an exercise class – and she has in one sense – no need to ask whether rehearsals, at this stage, are full-on. As we shake hello, she apologises for a hot hand and I for a cold one, having just come in from a sharp November morning. She is chirpy, friendly, waiting expectantly for questions – but what strikes me as I look at her is how her face in repose, at once dramatic and pensive, gives almost nothing away, like a page waiting to be written on.

Max Webster, the director, is setting the play in the modern day and Macbeth, a taut and ageless thriller, is especially friendly to this approach. I want to plunge straight in to cross-question the Macbeths. Supposing I were a marriage counsellor, what might they tell me – in confidence – about their alliance? Tennant is a step ahead: “There are two versions of the marriage, aren’t there? The one at the beginning and the fractured marriage later.” And he then makes me laugh by asking intently: “Are they sharing the murder with their therapist?”

He suggests Macbeth’s “reliance” on his wife is unusual and “not necessarily to be expected in medieval Scotland” (another excuse for the contemporary production): “I look to my wife for guidance: I don’t make a decision without her,” he explains. “We’ve been through some trauma which has induced an even stronger bond.” Jumbo agrees about the bond and spells out the trauma, reminding us the Macbeths have lost a child, but hesitates to play the game (I have suggested she talk about Lady Macbeth in the first person): “I want to get it right. I don’t want to get it wrong. I don’t know what to say… If I improv Lady Macbeth, it will feel disrespectful because you don’t know if what you’re saying on her behalf is true. And then you’re going to write what I say down and she [Lady Macbeth] is going to be: ‘Thanks, Cush, for f-ing talking about me that way.’” She emphasises that, as an actor, you must never judge your character, whatever crime they might have committed. And perhaps her resistance to straying from the text is partly as a writer herself (it was her play, Josephine and I, about the entertainer and activist Josephine Baker, that put her career into fast forward, opening off Broadway in 2015).

She stresses that the great problem with Lady Macbeth is that she has become a known quantity: “She is deeply ingrained in our culture. Everyone thinks they know who she is. Most people studied the play at school. I did – I hated it. It was so boring but that’s because Shakespeare’s plays aren’t meant to be read, they’re meant to be acted. People think they know Lady Macbeth as a type – the strong, controlling woman who pushed him to do it. She does things women shouldn’t do. The greatest misconception is that we have stopped seeing Lady Macbeth as a human being.”

For Tennant, too, keeping an open mind is essential: “What I’m finding most difficult is the variety of options. I thought I knew this play very well and that it was, unlike any other Shakespeare I can remember rehearsing, straightforward. But each time I come to a scene, it goes in a direction I wasn’t expecting.” He suggests that momentum is the play’s great asset: “It has such muscle to it, it powers along. Plot-wise, it’s more front-footed than any Shakespeare play I’ve done.” And is it ever difficult for him as Macbeth to subdue his instinctive comic talent? “Well, yes, that’s right, there are no gags! But actually, there are a couple of funny bits though I’d never intentionally inflict comedy on something that can’t take it. I hope I’m creating a rounded human being with moments of lightness, even in the bleakest times.” Jumbo adds: “Bleakness is funny at times”, and Tennant, quick as a flash, tops this: “Look at our government!” (He is an outspoken Labour supporter.) Later, when I ask what makes them angriest, he says: “Well, she [Suella Braverman]’s just been sacked so… I’m now slightly less angry than I was.” Jumbo nods agreement, adding that what makes her angriest is “unkindness”.

It is Tennant who then produces, with a flourish, the key question about the Macbeths: “Why do they decide to commit a crime? What is the fatal flaw that allows them to think that’s OK? I don’t know that they, as characters, would even know. Has the loss of a child destabilised their morality?” In preparation, Tennant and Jumbo have been researching post-traumatic stress disorder. “PTSD is a modern way of understanding something that’s always been there,” suggests Tennant – and the Macbeths are traumatised three times over by battle, bereavement and murder. “We’ve looked at postpartum psychosis as well,” Jumbo adds. They have been amazed at how the findings of modern experts “track within the play”. Tennant marvels aloud: “What can Shakespeare’s own research process have been?” Jumbo reminds him that Shakespeare, like the Macbeths, lost a child. She relishes the play’s “contemporary vibe which means it’s something my 14-year-old niece will want to see. Even though you know the ending, you don’t want it to go there. It’s exciting to play that as well as to watch it.”

A further exciting challenge is the show’s use of binaural technology (Gareth Fry, who worked on Complicité’s The Encounter, is sound designer). Each audience member will be given a set of headphones and be able to eavesdrop on the Macbeths. “The technology will mess with your neurons in a did-somebody-just-breathe-on-me way,” Jumbo explains. “You’ll feel as if you’re in a conversation with us, like listening to a podcast you love where you feel you’re sat with them having coffee.” Tennant adds: “What’s thrilling is that it makes things more naturalistic – we’re able to speak conversationally.”

Fast forward to opening night: how do they manage their time just before going on stage? Tennant says: “I dearly wish I had a set of failsafe strategies. I don’t find it straightforward. I’ve never been able to banish anxiety. It can be very problematic and part of the job is dealing with it. I squirrel myself away and tend to get quite quiet.” But at the Donmar, this will be tricky as backstage space is shared. Jumbo encourages him: “When I’ve played here before, I found the group dynamic helpful,” she says, but explains that her pre-show routine has changed since her career took off and she became a mother: “These days, I no longer have the luxury of saying: I’m going to do five hours of yoga before I go on. When I leave home at four in the afternoon, I might be thinking about whether I’ll hit traffic or, whether my kid’s stuff is ready for the next day. You get better at this, the more you do it. The main thing – which doesn’t sound that sexy – is to make sure to eat at the right time, something light, like soup, because when I’m nervous I get loads of acid and that does not make me feel good on stage. I have a cut-off point for eating and that timing has become a superstition in its own way.”

In 2020, Tennant and Jumbo co-starred in the compulsively watchable and disturbing Scottish mini-series Deadwater Fell for C4. How helpful is it to have worked together before? Tennant says it is “hugely” valuable when tackling something “intense and difficult” to be with someone you are “comfortable taking chances with”. Although actors cannot depend on this luxury: “Sometimes, you have to turn up the first day and go: ‘Ah, hello, nice to meet you, we’re going to be playing psychopathic Mr and Mrs Macbeth.’” And Jumbo adds: “I’ve been asked to do this play before and said no. You have to do it with the right person. I knew this would be fun because David is a laugh as well as being very hard-working.” He responds brightly with a non sequitur: “Wait till you see my knees in a kilt…” Are you seriously going to wear a kilt, I ask. “You’ll have to wait and see,” he laughs.

It is perhaps the kilt that triggers his next observation: “We’re an entirely Scottish company, apart from Cush,” he volunteers, suggesting that Macbeth’s choice of a non-Scottish wife brings new energy to the drama. He grew up in Paisley, the son of a Presbyterian minister, and remembers how, in his childhood, “whenever an English person arrived, you’d go “Oooh… from another worrrrld!”, and he reflects: “Someone from somewhere else gives you different energy.” And while on the Scottish theme, it is worth adding that Macbeth is the part that seems patiently to have been waiting for Tennant: “People keep saying: you must have done this play before? I don’t know if Italian Shakespeareans keep being asked if they have played Romeo…”

I tell them I remember puzzling, as a schoolgirl, over Macbeth’s line about “vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other” – the gymnastic detail beyond me. Tennant suggests that what Macbeth has, more even than ambition, is hubris. But on ambition, he and Jumbo reveal themselves to be two of a kind. Tennant says: “Ambition is not a word I’d have understood as a child but I had an ambition to become an actor from tiny – from pre-school. I did not veer off from it, I was very focused. When I look at it now, that was wildly ambitious because there were no precedents or reasons for me to believe I could.”

“For me, same,” says Jumbo, “I don’t remember ever wanting to be anything else.” She grew up in south London, second of six children. Her father is Nigerian and was a stay-at-home dad, her mother is British and worked as a psychiatric nurse. “At four, I was an avid reader and mimicker. I got into lots of trouble at school for mimicking. My ambition was similar to David’s although, as a girl, the word ‘ambition’ has always been a bit dirty…” Tennant: “It certainly is to a Scottish Presbyterian.” “Yes,” she laughs, “perhaps I should have said Celts and Blacks… Girls grow up thinking they should be modest, right? But I had so much ambition. I knew there was more for me to do and that I could be good at doing it.”

And what were they like as teenagers – as, say, 14-year-olds? Tennant says: “Uncomfortable, plooky…” What’s plooky, Jumbo and I exclaim in unison. “A Scottish word for covered in spots.” “That’s great!” laughs Jumbo. “Unstylish,” Tennant concludes. Her turn: “At 14, I was sassy, a bit mouthy, trying to get into a lot of clubs and not succeeding because I looked way too young for my age. And desperate for a snog.”

And now, as grownups, Tennant and Jumbo are, above all, keenly aware of what it means to be a parent. Jumbo has a son, Maximilian (born 2018); Tennant five children between the ages of four and 21. Parenthood, they believe, helps shape the work they do. “Being a parent magnifies the job of being an actor,” says Jumbo, “because what we’re being asked to do [as actors] is to stay playful and in the present – be big children. As a parent, you get to relive your childhood and see the world through your child’s eyes as if for the first time and more intensely. We don’t do that much as adults.”

Tennant reckons being a parent has given him “empathy, patience – or the requirement for patience – and tiredness. It gives you a big open wound you carry around, a vulnerability that is not a bad thing for this job because it means you have an emotional accessibility that can be very trying but which we need.” But the work-life balance remains, for Tennant, an ongoing struggle: “Just when you think you’ve figured it out, something happens,” he says, “and you have to recalibrate it because your children need different things at different times.” Jumbo sometimes looks to other actors/parents for advice: “To try to see what they are doing – but you never quite get it right.”

And would they agree there is a work-life balance involved in acting itself? Is acting an escape from self or a way of going deeper into themselves? Tennant says: “I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive though they sound as though they should be – I think it is both.” Jumbo agrees: “On the surface, you’re consciously stepping away from yourself but, actually, subconsciously, you have to do things instinctually so you find out more about yourself without meaning to.”

And when they go deeper, what is it that they find? Fear is another of the motors in Macbeth – what is fear for them? “Something being wrong with one of my kids,” Tennant says and Jumbo concurs. And what about fear for our planet? Tennant says: “There is so much to feel fearful and pessimistic about it can be…” Jumbo finishes his sentence: “Overwhelming.” He picks it up again: “So overwhelming that you don’t do anything.” Jumbo worries about this, tries to remind herself that doing something is better than doing nothing: “If everybody did something small in their corner of the world, the knock-on effect would be bigger.” Tennant admits to feeling “anxiety” and distinguishes it from fear. Jumbo volunteers: “I recognise fear in myself but don’t see it as a helpful emotion. It’s underactive, a place to stand still.”

As actors who have hit the jackpot, what would they say, aside from talent, has been essential to their success? Tennant says: “Luck – to be in the right place at the right time, having one job that leads to another.” Jumbo remembers: “Early in my career, I had a slow start. You have to fill your soul with creative things, which is not always easy if you can’t afford to go out. You have to find things that are free, get together with people who are creative and give you good vibes and not people who are bitter and jealous or have lots of bad things to say about the world. This tends to bring more creative things to you.” Tennant observes: “As the creative arts go, acting is a difficult one to do on your own – if you’re a painter, you can paint – even if no one is buying your paintings.” Jumbo chips in: “Because of that, it can be quite lonely when it’s not happening.” “Tennant concludes: “It’s bloody unfair – there are far too many good actors, too many of us.”

And are they in any way like the Macbeths in being partly governed by magical thinking – or do they see themselves as rationalists? (I neglect to ask whether they call Macbeth “the Scottish play”, as many actors superstitiously do.) “I am a rationalist. I’m almost aggressively anti-nonsense,” Tennant says. Jumbo, unfazed by this manifestation of reason, speaks up brightly: “I’m a magical thinker, I’m half Nigerian and that’s all about magical realism and belief in energy. If something goes my way, I think: God, I felt that energy. And the thing that drew me to theatre as a kid was its magic.” And now Tennant, alerted by the word “magic”, starts to clamber on board to agree with her – and Jumbo laughs as they acknowledge the power of what she has just said.'

#David Tennant #Hamlet #Richard II #Cush Jumbo #Deadwater Fell #Macbeth #Donmar Warehouse #There She Goes #Broadchurch #Dennis Nilson #Des #Doctor Who #As You Like It #Julius Caesar #Max Webster #Josephine & I #Gareth Fry

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 6 months

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"The sad truth is that musicals are the only public art form reviewed mostly by ignoramuses. Books are reviewed by writers, the visual arts by disappointed, if knowledgeable, painters and art students, concert music by composers and would-be composers. Plays, at least in this country, are reviewed by people who don't know de Montherlant from de Ghelderode and couldn't care less, whose knowledge is comprised of what they read in Variety and gossip columns, and who know nothing, of course, about music. Musicals continue to be the only art form, popular or otherwise, that is publicly criticized by illiterates."

Stephen Sondheim has stated that his original ambition was to become a mathematician and that he became a composer largely by chance. A big influence was the fact that famed lyricist Oscar Hammerstein (of Rodgers & Hammerstein) was a neighbor of his when Sondheim was a boy. When he wrote a musical for a school production, he showed it to Hammerstein who told him it was the worst musical he had ever read. However, Hammerstein also told him that nonetheless it showed a lot of latent talent and proceeded to tell him everything that was wrong with it and how to fix it, for which Sondheim was always grateful.

"Oscar Hammerstein had urged me to write from my own sensibility, but at that time I had no sensibility, no take on the world. My voice snuck up on me. I started to develop an attitude in 'Saturday Night,' a laconic lyrical style in 'Gypsy' and a structurally experimental musical one in 'Anyone Can Whistle.' They all came together in full-throated fruition in 'Company.' 'Oh,' I thought at the end of the opening number, 'that's who I am.' From then on I could afford to try anything, because I knew I had a home base that was mine alone and that would inform everything I would write, good and bad."

"Just before he died, he gave me a picture of himself and I asked him to inscribe it, which is sort of odd because he was a surrogate father to me, it's like asking your father to inscribe a picture. And he thought for a minute, and he was clearly a little embarrassed. And then he got a smile on his face, like the cat had just eaten the cream. And he wrote something. And when he left the room, I looked at it. And it said 'For Stevey, my friend and teacher.' That's a measure of Oscar. He wrote a lyric, as a matter of fact, in 'The King and I' -'By your pupils, you are taught.' He was a remarkable fellow."

A musical based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee was a project of producer David Merrick and actress Ethel Merman. Merrick had read a chapter of Lee's memoirs in Harper's Magazine and approached Lee to obtain the rights. Jerome Robbins was interested, and wanted Leland Hayward as co-producer; Merman also wanted Hayward to produce her next show. Merrick and Hayward approached Arthur Laurents to write the book. As he relates, Laurents initially was not interested until he saw that the story was one of parents living their children's lives. Composers Irving Berlin and Cole Porter declined the project. Finally, Robbins asked Sondheim, who agreed to do it (Sondheim had worked with Robbins and Laurents on the musical "West Side Story"). However, Merman did not want an "unknown" composer, and wanted Jule Styne to write the music. Although Sondheim initially refused to write only the lyrics, he was persuaded by Hammerstein to accept the job.

"Gypsy" opened on Broadway in May of 1959, and is frequently considered one of the crowning achievements of the mid-twentieth century's conventional musical theatre art form, often called the book musical. "Gypsy" has been referred to as the greatest American musical by numerous critics and writers, among them Ben Brantley ("what may be the greatest of all American musicals...") and Frank Rich. The role of Mama Rose was played by Rosalind Russell in the 1962 film version; the closest Merman got to recreating her stage success on the big screen was in the hospital scene in "Airplane!" (1980) (she starts belting out "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and has to be sedated).

Sondheim on the song 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' from "Gypsy": "The difficulty was to find a way to say 'Things are going to be better than ever' without being flatly colloquial on the one hand or fancifully imagistic on the other. I was proud of the solution, and especially so when I picked up the New York Times one morning in 1968 and read the first sentence in the leading editorial: 'Everything is not coming up roses in Vietnam.' I had passed a phrase into the English language." (IMDb/Wikipedia)

Happy Birthday, Stephen Sondheim!

Cinema Shorthand Society

#Cinema Shorthand Society #Stephen Sondheim #songwriters #musicals #the theatre #song lyrics #history #Rogers and Hammerstein

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billldenbrough · 2 years

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#I know this isn’t all of them #michael j fox #back to the future #marty mcfly #alex p keaton #family ties

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mildly-hebraic-looking-elf · 2 years

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This week’s pair of words from @schittscreekdrabbleblog are Review and Deer. That was a challenging combo, but here goes.

***********

“Mom, you’re on Broadway. One snotty review doesn’t matter.”

“Ben Brantley is the preeminent arbiter of thee-A-ter, Alexiiiiiis!” Her mother-slash-client wails through the phone.

“I know. Remember how my fourth grade play had to close after he called our performance of ‘doe, a deer’ ‘amateurish?’”

“In fairness, it was.”

Alexis commences internet sleuthing. “It’s not in the New York Times…….”

“Obviously. He retired in twenty-twenty.”

“So where did he post it?”

“A personal missive camouflaged amongst my fan mail!”

Seriously??

“Mkay. Throw it away, and let me handle the actual press. Then I’m finding him the cutest little retirement hobby!”

#schitt’s creek #moira rose #alexis rose #modern day Judy and Lorna #schitt’s creek fanfic #drabble #Broadway humor #theatre humor #idk if anyone besides me will find this funny #oh well

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owlpuddle · 1 year

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Ohh my god you think standing ovations are too common now? Should we tell everyone? Should we throw a party? Should we invite Ben Brantley

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oldbaton · 1 year

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Ben Brantley’s tribute to Carol Channing when she passed is sadly perfection. Her Dolly is so imprinted into what musical theatre IS that all of us have seen her in it even though few of us have.

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jgroffdaily · 11 months

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Here's a link to the liner notes for the Merrily We Roll Along cast recording, including the essays from Maria Friedman and Ben Brantley. It was recorded on 15, 16 and 27 October.

Part of Ben Brantley's message:

Instead of forcing a high-concept framework onto Merrily, Friedman chose to work entirely from within the existing script and score, mining each note and word for their deepest emotional content. “As the actor or the director,” she has said, “you put in the humanity, and the complexity in the humanity, beneath the cleverness.” Friedman selected actors who brought their own glow of humanity to their characters’ self-sabotaging ambivalence.

For the ambitious Franklin Shepard, a composer-turned-movie-producer, she chose the charismatic, eminently likable Groff (a Tony nominee for Spring Awakening and Hamilton). And a figure once dismissed as a narcissistic cad is now the pulsing, rueful heart of a show that now seems to be taking place within his memory.

Radcliffe, who has evolved into a fine stage actor in the years since Harry Potter, brings an electric, energizing obsessiveness to the playwright Charley Kringas. And Mendez, a Tony winner for Carousel, is the trio’s essential fulcrum as the defensively sharp-tongued Mary Flynn, a novelist and drama critic. Reg Rogers, Krystal Joy Brown and Katie Rose Clarke provide meticulously thought-through portraits of characters who registered as caricatures in earlier productions.

Listen to Groff giving voice to circular thought in “Growing Up,” or Radcliffe performing the propulsive “Franklin Shepard, Inc.,” or Mendez leading “Now You Know,” and you hear a fully textured, singular personality emerge in song. When they do the trio “Old Friends,” its ricocheting reversals of feelings leave you dizzy. The great Jonathan Tunick, who orchestrated the original Merrily, performs the same duties here. And his work makes a case for this as one of Sondheim’s most involving scores, one that trembles with conflicted feelings.

Friedman and company have so fully embraced Merrily, without judgmental distance, that we wind up identifying with every one of its principal characters, even at their most selfish and short-sighted. Unlike previous versions, this Merrily isn’t about how love and ideals are lost. It’s about how they endure, to prod and sting us and keep us alive.

Yes, Merrily breaks our heart. But as befits an unresolved show that after many years in the shadows has finally come into its own, it finds a radiant hope within the darkness.

#jonathan groff #lindsay mendez #daniel radcliffe #merrily we roll along #cast recording #ben brantley #maria friedman

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shakespearenews · 1 year

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In 2019, she did do Lear on Broadway, in a reconceived production tricked out with an abundance of postmodern conceits that might have smothered a less assertive star. Jackson cut through the surrounding flash like a buzz saw, throwing herself against the wall of old age and mortality until it seemed to crumble into unanswerable darkness.

#shakespeare #william shakepeare #glenda jackson #lear #king lear #broadway #theater #theatre

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bettercostume · 2 years

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Screaming at your tag on those gifs of long haired Leo 😭 which karamazov brother is he 🤔

THIS BUD'S FOR YOU, USER ANONOVICH! honestly, and this is boring and too on the nose (says NYT theater critic Ben Brantley): alyosha. his sour little mug and dark eyes would be killer for a raging at a malevolent god, but i think his genial goodwill and the love he inspires in others works to overpower any ill bearing. (I think, for the record, young Xavi is the Ivan dream casting the world has been waiting for.) YOU DID NOT ASK but if I had to give the roles to MSN Suarez would be Smerydavok hands down. Barca Neymar gets to be Liza, PSG Neymar can finally pull off Grushenka. My vision will not be compromised.

bless you, i love this kind of ask and i hope you have an excellent day.

#anon

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denimbex1986 · 10 months

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'David Tennant took to the Donmar Warehouse's stage as Macbeth alongside Cush Jumbo on Friday.

The actor, 52, showcased his skills as he put on a moving performance for a revival of Shakespeare's most extraordinary psychological drama.

The adaptation is directed by Donmar Associate director Max Webster, also known for Life Of Pi and Henry V.

The Doctor Who icon was joined on stage by Cush, 38, as Lady Macbeth.

The Good Wife actress is a heavyweight theatre star as she previously played in Hamlet at the Young Vic a few years back - after what she was described by the former New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley as radiating 'that unquantifiable force of hunger, drive, talent usually called star power'.

In a glooming and dramatic animation, David and Cush stunned the crowd with a sensational performance - as the show is set to continue for the whole winter season.

The production will use binaural technology to create 'an intense and unnerving 3D sound world', according to TimeOut.

Chatting to The Guardian, the David said of his latest work: 'I thought I knew this play very well and that it was, unlike any other Shakespeare I can remember rehearsing, straightforward.

'But each time I come to a scene, it goes in a direction I wasn't expecting. It has such muscle to it, it powers along. Plot-wise, it's more front-footed than any Shakespeare play I've done.'

Talking about her character Lady Macbeth, Cush said: 'She is deeply ingrained in our culture. Everyone thinks they know who she is. Most people studied the play at school. I did – I hated it. It was so boring but that's because Shakespeare's plays aren't meant to be read, they're meant to be acted.

'People think they know Lady Macbeth as a type – the strong, controlling woman who pushed him to do it. She does things women shouldn't do. The greatest misconception is that we have stopped seeing Lady Macbeth as a human being.'

Earlier this week Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has revealed that there are 'no plans' for David Tennant to return in the new series.

The actor reprised his role as the Time Lord for a trio of Specials to celebrate the show's 60th Anniversary, with a twist in the third and final episode leaving The Fourteenth Doctor to embrace a new life on Earth.

While David's return was praised by viewers, and the conclusion has left the door open for him to appear again in the future, Russell has confirmed that moving forward, new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa is the sole focus.

After his first appearance in the final special last week, Ncuti makes his full debut in a festive special on Christmas Day, alongside Millie Gibson, who will star as his companion Ruby Sunday.

Speaking at a Q&A following the premiere of the festive episode, Russell said: 'Sorry, it's the age of Ncuti now – it's 'David who?''

'No plans, genuinely, yet, because it's a busy TARDIS - these two [Ncuti and Millie Gibson as companion Ruby Sunday] are gonna just sail across the universe and capture your heart, so it's time to look at these two.'

Elsewhere, Russell also revealed that when the new series hits screens in 2024, there will be an appearance from 60s music icons The Beatles.

He said: '[The Christmas special is] completely different to the next episode, isn't it? And then the one after that, that's the Beatles... that's nuts!'

Viewers will get to see Ncuti make his full debut as The Doctor in the festive special which sees him cross paths with Ruby, before the pair encounter 'mythical and mysterious goblins.'

Ncuti made his first appearance as The Doctor in the third and final 60th Anniversary Special, The Giggle.

His arrival came when 'creepy' returning villain The Toymaker, played by Neil Patrick Harris, shot David's Doctor through the chest, forcing him to regenerate.

The Toymaker had turned human beings on Earth mad, before challenging the Doctor to a deadly game - which put the planet at stake - forcing the Time Lord to accept to try and save Earth.

Shooting the Doctor, The Toymaker said: 'I played one game with the First Doctor, I played the second with this Doctor, so your rules declare that I must play the third game with the next Doctor!'

His companions Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and the returning Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) ran over to support him as he regenerated, with fans expecting that to be the end for David's character.

Melanie reassured him: 'You're going to be someone else, it doesn't matter who, because every single one of you is fantastic!'

While David tearfully said: 'It's time, here we go again! Alonzee,' as he expected to be replaced, but a huge twist saw his character remain alongside his new incarnation.

As he remained after the regeneration, he asked Donna and Melanie: 'Could you, pull? It feels different this time,' and as they yanked on his arms, Ncuti shot out of him and the two Time Lords stood alongside each other in a massive twist.

Making his hotly-anticipated debut, Ncuti's Doctor shouted: 'No way!' as he laid eyes on David, moving away from tradition which normally sees one Doctor replace another upon regeneration.

David said: 'You're me,' while Ncuti replied: 'No, I'm me. I think I'm really, really me! Oh-ho-ho I am completely me!'

When asked what had happened, Ncuti's Doctor said: 'Bi-generation, I have bi-generated. There's no such thing, bi-generation is supposed to be a myth, but-!'

The pair of Doctors then used their talents to face off with The Toymaker together and incredibly managed to beat him at his own game, sending the villain out of existence forever.

David's Doctor said: 'Best of three, and my prize, Toymaker, is to banish you from existence, for ever!'

'No, you can't. But I - not fair, please,' the Toymaker said, before giving the ominous warning: 'My legions are coming.'

After banishing The Toymaker from the world, both David and Ncuti's versions of the character stayed on screen, and went back to the TARDIS with Donna.

David asked Ncuti: 'How's this going to work, you and me?' as the huge twist saw two Doctors remain after a regeneration for the first time ever.

Ncuti told him: 'You're thin as a pin love, you're running on fumes,' before urging him to slow down and 'stop' rather than running and travelling in the TARDIS.

Ncuti then paid tribute to a whole host of former companions, including the late Elisabeth Sladen, who portrayed Sarah Jane Smith and sadly died in 2011.

'Sarah Jane has gone, can you believe that for a second?' Ncuti said as they sweetly paid tribute to the iconic actress.

David Tennant takes on Macbeth: Doctor Who stars transforms into the Scottish King alongside Cush Jumbo By CAROLINA PIRAS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 17:24, 15 December 2023 | UPDATED: 17:40, 15 December 2023

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View comments David Tennant took to the Donmar Warehouse's stage as Macbeth alongside Cush Jumbo on Friday.

The actor, 52, showcased his skills as he put on a moving performance for a revival of Shakespeare's most extraordinary psychological drama.

The adaptation is directed by Donmar Associate director Max Webster, also known for Life Of Pi and Henry V.

The Doctor Who icon was joined on stage by Cush, 38, as Lady Macbeth.

David Tennant took to the Donmar Warehouse's stage as Macbeth alongside Cush Jumbo on Friday +10 View gallery David Tennant took to the Donmar Warehouse's stage as Macbeth alongside Cush Jumbo on Friday

The actor, 52, showcased his acting skills as he put on a moving performance for a revival of Shakespeare's most extraordinary psychological drama +10 View gallery The actor, 52, showcased his acting skills as he put on a moving performance for a revival of Shakespeare's most extraordinary psychological drama

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Nigella Lawson reveals the one household chore she has NEVER done 71.5k viewing now The Good Wife actress is a heavyweight theatre star as she previously played in Hamlet at the Young Vic a few years back - after what she was described by the former New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley as radiating 'that unquantifiable force of hunger, drive, talent usually called star power'.

In a glooming and dramatic animation, David and Cush stunned the crowd with a sensational performance - as the show is set to continue for the whole winter season.

The production will use binaural technology to create 'an intense and unnerving 3D sound world', according to TimeOut.

Chatting to The Guardian, the David said of his latest work: 'I thought I knew this play very well and that it was, unlike any other Shakespeare I can remember rehearsing, straightforward.

'But each time I come to a scene, it goes in a direction I wasn't expecting. It has such muscle to it, it powers along. Plot-wise, it's more front-footed than any Shakespeare play I've done.'

Earlier this week Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has revealed that there are 'no plans' for David Tennant to return in the new series.

After his first appearance in the final special last week, Ncuti makes his full debut in a festive special on Christmas Day, alongside Millie Gibson, who will star as his companion Ruby Sunday.

Speaking at a Q&A following the premiere of the festive episode, Russell said: 'Sorry, it's the age of Ncuti now – it's 'David who?''

The Doctor Who icon was joined on stage by Cush, 38, as Lady Macbeth +10 View gallery The Doctor Who icon was joined on stage by Cush, 38, as Lady Macbeth

According to the description the gory play portrays a 'spellbinding story of love and murder, the renewing power of nature, and of the internal struggles of a damaged man as he tries to control his destiny' +10 View gallery According to the description the gory play portrays a 'spellbinding story of love and murder, the renewing power of nature, and of the internal struggles of a damaged man as he tries to control his destiny'