Belfast Composer Delivers Dubstep Shakespeare Exclusive
Ballycastle born Composer Garth McConaghie, who has composed music for the FIFA World Cup, BBC, RTE and others, has collaborated with Youth Music Theatre UK (YMT), the UK’s leading theatre company for young people, to stage Macbeth as it has never been seen before in a world exclusive at The Lyric Theatre in July. Transporting Macbeth from his Scottish roots to a nameless Asian state, this is a unique take on Shakespeare, with a thrilling new piece of musical theatre featuring fierce electronic music combined with live classical instruments and contemporary choreography.
McConaghie joins forces with accomplished director Stuart Harvey to bring this exhilarating performance to Belfast featuring a cast of over 40 young people drawn from Northern Ireland and all over the UK including local 15 year olds Shannon Cooley from Belfast, cast as a witch, and Kirstyn Kearney, from Derry-Londonderry who has been cast as an apparition.
Giving a taste of what audiences can expect, Stuart who has directed countless musicals including Annie, Wizard of Oz, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Oliver to name a few, commented, “The production is a dystopian re-imagining of this classic and popular Shakespeare tale. It’s dark, futuristic, thrilling and enticing, led by a wonderful cast of outstandingly talented young people with cutting edge composition from Garth McConaghie. ”
Set in a nameless Asian state sometime in the future, the production centres on the fall of the digital world that sees Macbeth, an ambitious head of security, monitoring groups of young men and women attempting to bring the establishment down. YMT’s take on Macbeth is one of treachery, deceit and blind ambition, which is found in the shadows of a neo-noir world where no one can be trusted.
Composer Garth McConaghie added, “This is an exceptional opportunity for young people from Northern Ireland to develop their musical theatre skills alongside others from all over the UK. Our production is particularly exciting as, unlike Annie or Oliver, it allows young people to be involved in the creation and performance of brand new work in front of live audiences, with live classical instruments and urban, electronic music. I’m very excited about our production debuting on the best stage in Belfast this summer.”
YMT has a history of working with and developing young talent who go on to have extremely successful careers in the music and theatre industries and can count Brit Award-winning and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and current hot property singer Sam Smith amongst their illustrious alumni .
YMT’s previous work in Northern Ireland over the last ten years has included a new musical The Chosen Room by Marie Jones, a musical based on the work of Neil Sedaka Oh! Carol (in which chart-topping, award-winning Sam Smith played a leading role), various devised projects at Queen’s Film Theatre and outreach work in Strabane, the Ardoyne, West Belfast, Dunmurry and Ballymena. Hundreds of young people from Northern Ireland have also auditioned for YMT and joined productions in London and throughout England and Scotland; in 2005 a largely Northern Irish group of young people also took a YMT/Lyric theatre production of Goblin Market to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Northern Ireland creative staff also include composer Conor Mitchell and resident director of the West End hit show Once, Des Kennedy.
Performances of Macbeth run from Wednesday 23July until Saturday 26 July at the Lyric Theatre Belfast. For tickets visit www.lyrictheatre.co.uk