Output details

Macbeth [NTS production with Alan Cumming]

This is an example of a collaborative production sharing new insights into the expressive potential of the voice. In this radical re-imagining of Macbeth, the researcher worked with director John Tiffany and actor Alan Cumming to create a (near) one-man version of Shakespeare’s classic, in which the voice was a starting point for the dramaturgy. Working with Cumming to develop a highly expressive range of timbres, Steen had a decisive influence on the production, which opened at the Tramway, Glasgow, in June 2012 before transferring to the Lincoln Center New York and subsequently to Broadway.

Steen’s practice-based research extends the voice work of Nadine George (itself based on Roy Hart’s techniques) into the process of direction. This approach identifies four core qualities in each individual voice (two ‘male’ and two ‘female’), and thereby changes the status of the voice work in production: whereas traditional voice coaching aimed to support a director’s pre-determined vision, Steen’s research allows the dramaturgy to be shaped by the unique vocal qualities of the actors in a given production.

In Macbeth, the researcher’s work allowed Cumming to develop blends of the 'male' and 'female' qualities to create Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and to (re)source the supernatural voices of the non-gendered witches by extending those qualities to the edges of the voice. The director of this production, John Tiffany, is a long term collaborator with Steen and developed his own voice practice with her: his embodied understanding of her research helped ensure a shared vocabulary in the production process for MacBeth.

The impact of Steen’s particular contribution to this performance is reflected in reviews: ‘It is 100 minutes of poetry, with Cumming spitting fire as a witch, squeezing every drop of filth and fury from Lady Macbeth’s great speeches before becoming a pitiful, hand-wringing shadow.’ (The Independent, 18 June 2012).

For the purposes of this submission, the two 'co-authors' are John Tiffany and Alan Cumming.