If Your Group Chat’s Been Feeling A Little Stale Lately, Make This Your September Night Out

In the deep depths of winter, even the busiest social calendar can start to feel like it's running on repeat. Dinner reservations here, movie nights there, don’t get us wrong, it’s always a good time, yet by the time spring rolls around, every catch-up could do with a bit of drama. Preferably, the kind that ends with a standing ovation rather than someone leaving the group chat.

A little murder, mayhem and media manipulation might just be the plot twist your social calendar has been waiting for. That’s exactly what WA Ballet’s Macbeth has in store this September. Fresh from wowing audiences across the Tasman, the co-production with Royal New Zealand Ballet is chasséing into Perth for a strictly limited season at His Majesty’s Theatre from 4 September.

But forget everything your Year 11 English teacher taught you about Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy. Acclaimed choreographer Alice Topp has torn up the centuries-old rulebook. Rather than kings and castles, her Macbeth unfolds in a world of corporate ambition, media manipulation and intoxicating power, where every impeccably dressed entrance hides another betrayal waiting in the wings.

In Topp’s take, the Macbeths are no longer medieval monarchs. Instead, they’re the city’s shiniest power couple. Stylish, influential and seemingly untouchable, they’re living a life of glamour, adoration and champagne-soaked success. That’s, of course, until ambition starts demanding more. The higher they climb, the further there is to fall, and watching it all unravel is where the real drama begins.

The story is skilfully told through movement rather than monologues, with every lift, leap and line revealing just as much as Shakespeare’s famous words ever could.  Topp’s contemporary choreography is both seductive and sinister, charting the Macbeths’ descent from dizzying success to full-blown paranoia.

Medieval Scotland has undergone a serious style overhaul, too. Gone are the corsets and crowns, replaced with razor-sharp tailoring, sleek black suiting and velvet pieces created in collaboration with iconic New Zealand menswear label Rembrant. Every garment has been engineered to withstand gravity-defying lifts and explosive choreography, all while looking impeccably polished beneath the theatre lights.

Of course, the spectacle goes well beyond the visuals, a live string octet accompanies an original contemporary score composed by Christopher Gordon,  bolstered by elements of jazz, rock, hip hop and electronic dance music to create an all emcompassing muscial experience.  It swings between beautifully understated and completely overwhelming, keeping the tension simmering before dialling it all the way up.

If your search for ballet still conjures up images of tutus, fairy tales and familiar classics, Macbeth is here to prove otherwise. Fusing fashion, theatre, live music and storytelling, this is a prime example of just how thrilling contemporary dance can be. Add a limited season, an excuse to finally wear the outfit that's been hanging in your wardrobe waiting for an occasion, and the inevitable post-show debrief over late-night cocktails, and you’ve got one of spring’s most compelling nights out.

Shakespeare may have called it a tragedy, but missing this limited season would be the real one.

WA Ballet's Macbeth runs at His Majesty's Theatre from 4–19 September as a co-production with Royal New Zealand Ballet. Tickets are on sale now.

Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by WA Ballet and proudly endorsed by The Urban List. To find out more about who we work with and why, read our editorial policy here.

Image credit: Urban List