Macbeth - Auckland Verified listing

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) brings naked ambition, political power and transgression to the fore in this new, original staging, propelling Shakespeare’s iconic characters into a shadowy world of manipulation by media, boardroom intrigue and sudden violence. As the Macbeths emerge as a dazzling new power couple, triumphantly atop a glamorous social set, the view from the top is dizzying – and the fall vertiginous.

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 music, layering a full orchestral and heavy metal score with live string octet, inexorably driving Macbeth and his Lady to a conclusion that is as inevitable as it is devastating.

Macbeth has been created with significant support from the Haythorne Circle. Presented in association with Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts and Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival, Macbeth is a co-production with West Australian Ballet.

‘Stars, hide your fires. Let not light see my black and deep desires.’ – Macbeth, Act I Scene IV

Book Macbeth as part of a ticket package with The Sleeping Beauty or Winter Season and save 20%.

Recommended for audiences aged 14 and over; parental discretion is advised.