A bold and bloody re-telling of Macbeth marks the start of the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 2026 season, bringing this most visceral of tragedies to the stage in an explosion of high-octane contemporary ballet.

Choreographer Alice Topp (Aurum, Logos, High Tide) focuses on naked ambition, political power and transgression in this new, original staging, bringing Shakespeare’s iconic characters into a shadowy world of manipulation by media, boardroom intrigue and sudden violence.

The seduction of success and adulation give way to doubt, paranoia and madness, with Alice Topp’s mesmerising movement and Christopher Gordon’s pounding new score, performed live by members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, inexorably driving Macbeth and his Lady to a conclusion that is as inevitable as it is devastating. 

 

Presented in association with Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival, Macbeth is a co-production with West Australian Ballet