Review: THE REAL LADY MACBETH World Premiere at The Actors Company

In Shakespeare’s “Scottish play,” Lady Macbeth suffers a misogynistic depiction as a murderous, greedy, overambitious villain. But in the world premiere of The Real Lady Macbeth at the 2026 Hollywood Fringe Festival, writers and producers Coco Blignaut and Edison Park, who also star in the production, assert that the true, historical Lady Macbeth was more complex and far more interesting given the historical period in which she lived. And that she was full of surprises!

Coco Blignaut and Edison Park as the Macbeths

Born of royal blood in a time when women struggled to earn their rightful spot at court, the future Lady Macbeth was a powerful Druid queen with skills of prophecy and divination based on ancient Celtic pagan traditions in the 11th Century before Christianity completely replaced the old ways. Directed by Sofia Streisand, Blignaut and Park portray the Macbeths, who first meet after she has lost her first husband and is looking for her next opportunity to find a man willing to accept her for who she is and accept her masculine desire to rule over others.

Eve Sigall and Coco Blignaut

Using a fresh visual look that blends bohemian and steampunk, with witchy undertones, a quartet of four actors will keep you nailed to your seats with electrifying portrayals that include some iconic Shakespeare monologues woven into the play, to bring you the truth about Lady Macbeth that you never knew.

Savannah Schakett

But before Park appears as Macbeth, we meet Eve Sigall and Savannah Schakett as two other pagan witches who conspire and cast spells with Blignaut that lift the production into the realm of imaginary realism, especially when Sigall asserts her spiritual power at the helm of their bubbling caldron. Their intense devotion to casting spells to get what they want makes it easy to see how this witchy trio will easily morph into those in Shakespeare’s play, even before they actually do in The Real Lady Macbeth.

Eve Sigall

As they cast spells to create the perfect match for their future Queen, Park appears as Macbeth, a warrior lost and searching for a way to attain the power he believes he deserves – to be the King of Scotland. And once the two meet, sparks fly and their intense physical attraction explodes onstage, leading to the almost too-intense-to-watch birth of their child. But that scene effectively represents the power of women to create life, especially during such a difficult breech birth as staged realistically (without any blood, thank goodness) by Blignaut and Park as the now-married and newly crowned King and Queen of Scotland. 

Coco Blignaut and Edison Park

With her place firmly established on the throne, Lady Macbeth’s motivations are direct: to protect her husband, her child, and her ancestral lands, Fife and Moray, from those who would do them harm. But her story ends far differently than in Shakespeare’s fiction… lifting the curse from the name of this fascinating historical figure.

Coco Blignaut and Edison Park

The intense production will pull into its spell thanks to the astonishingly real characters brought to life by four amazing actors who authentically portray these historical druids on the darkened and often spooky, mist-filled scenic design by Lou H with emotionally-empowering lighting designed by Jared Pixler. Druid costumes, most likely created by Blignaut and Park, add to the realism of the play’s time period. Due to its intense nature and adult-themed scenes, the play is recommended for audiences age 15 to Adult.

Presented by Rosarium Films, performances of The Real Lady Macbeth take place through June 28 in the Let Live Theatre at the Actors Company, 916 N. Formosa Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046, with an estimated run time of 1 hour. For more information and tickets, visit https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/14061

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