—Stars, hide your fires!

Let not light see my black and deep desires...

—Look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under it…

 —There 's daggers in men's smiles…

Shakespeare’s immortal Tragedy of Macbeth is a dazzling commixture of lustful emotion, silken bombast, and pure evil. It comprises some of the most haunting and exquisite poetry ever written, dealing with such timeless subjects as murder, betrayal, the lust for power, ghosts and witches, and the devastation wreaked by Hubris.

It boasts two of Shakespeare’s finest creations in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: a couple that sizzles with sexuality, unlike most Shakespearean marriages.

In Scotland, consumed by ambition and driven to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne for himself. Wracked with guilt and then paranoia, he becomes a tyrannical ruler as he is forced to commit more and more murders to protect his regime. The ensuing bloodbath and civil war swiftly lead Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to madness, and death.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) was an English playwright poet, and actor, regarded as the world’s pre-eminent dramatist, and the greatest writer in the English language. Author of Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear, he is often called the “Bard of Avon,” England’s national poet.