Most New Year’s resolutions are modest ambitions like eating healthier or reading more. Macbeth’s ambition is to become king. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is Shakespeare Dallas’ winter production, performed indoors at Theatre Three in Uptown Dallas, Jan. 17 to Feb. 1. Shakespeare wrote  Macbeth between 1604 and 1606, setting it in 11th-century Scotland. Famous for its supernatural characters and the superstition associated with saying the title of the play in a theater, the Jacobean tragedy is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays, with the bloody events unfolding quickly. Bryan Pitts plays the titular role, a Scottish general who takes the prophecy of three witches to heart and murders the king so he can rule and cement his legacy.  “I think ambitious is a word I would use for him, for sure. Of course, there are other factors: the spirits, his wife, the climate of war going on. He is a warrior. And you think about what you can achieve or what is an achievement during that time, “ Pitts said. “I think a lot of it is ambition, but I think that the ambition is driven by fear. There’s a time limit to things. Speaking to that time period, a lot of importance was put on your lineage. What are you leaving behind? Do you have children? Do you have male heirs? Do you have something that will live on past you to carry on your name? Macbeth doesn’t have those things.” As bloody plots trigger more violence, Macbeth’s sanity unravels. Playing Macbeth’s mental decline is one of Pitt’s greatest acting challenges in this production. “He’s a person that goes from place to place from anger to confusion to vengeance to ambition to sorrow, even mid-monologue,” Pitts said. The compressed timeline puts constant emotional pressure on Macbeth. “I think that makes that emotional arc not as smooth,” Pitts said. “I think time is so precious because everything is so finite. For a man who is a warrior used to killing people and ending their lives, I think this is one of the times he thinks about his own mortality and his own legacy.” Natalie Young plays Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare Dallas’ production of Macbeth. Encouraging Macbeth’s ambitions is his wife, Lady Macbeth. As a childless married woman, her legacy is tied to her husband’s achievements, and she sees opportunity in the witch’s prophecy. “In our production, I would say she is driving him, but it takes a turn,” Pitts said. After she initially helps him with his ruthless schemes, Macbeth instigates plans on his own. Lady Macbeth, riddled by guilt, commits suicide. Learning of her death crushes Macbeth. “I think it is devastating,” Pitts said. “At the same time, he has accepted his own death, but he doesn’t want to experience her death as well.” Shakespeare Dallas calls this production a “classical staging.” Pitts explains that it primarily refers to the approach to Shakespeare’s language. “A lot of times that language is changed to be more pleasant or more delicious to the audience, so they have to ‘think so much,’” Pitts said. “I would say in this case, our production is more in line with the classic; more of the time it was placed as opposed to imagining or placing it somewhere where there is a translation needed.” The show is performed on Theatre Three’s Norma Young Arena Stage. The theater-in-the-round creates an intimate experience for the audience, allowing people to be immersed in the action. “You can hear more, you can see more, but you can see less, so you can use your imagination more,” Pitts said. “But you can also see sweat, you can see tears, you can see the tremble of the lip.” The space allows the cast to engage the audience in different ways. “You can also use different voice levels. We can whisper. We can use hushed tones, and we do a lot more exploration in that space because it is smaller,” Pitts said. In this space, people might see something of themselves in Macbeth. “I think it is a lot about commonalities,’ Pitts said. “I think there are still people who talk about their legacy.” In Macbeth’s quest for a legacy, ambition kills the ambitious. “An ambitious man who got caught up in his own ambition and let it run away with his life,” Pitts said. “Come experience it.” Learn more: Shakespeare Dallas ...read more read less