Alice Topp reimagines Macbeth as a modern ballet blending political intrigue and social media influence

For choreographer and former Australian Ballet dancer Alice Topp, one of the attractions of creating Macbeth for ballet was there was no model for how it should be done.

"Creating a brand new ballet where there is no template for it meant that we could explore and discover and roam together," she tells ABC Arts.

The other attraction, Topp says, is that the themes stand the test of time.

She says she was eager to explore the darkness and human complexity of the story, replete with political ambition, psychological manipulation and violence.

"Macbeth and Lady Macbeth aren't just pure villains," Topp says.

"They have insecurities and self-doubt. They're nuanced like us all."

Macbeth, a co-production between the West Australian Ballet and Royal New Zealand Ballet, had its world premiere in Wellington in February and opens for the first time in Australia in Perth on September 4.

From bard to ballet

To tell the story, Topp needed to figure out how to communicate the story without its key element: Shakespeare's text.

"The language in the book, in the text, has such movement already embedded into it," she says.

"It's got environmental movement, it's got horses' hooves and soundscapes, knocking, ravens, owls. So that already, in itself, paints such a picture."

"How can you show Lady Macbeth really pushing Macbeth into committing Duncan's murder?"

"When [Macbeth] lifts her up and holds her above him, that shows his respect for her."

"When she's on balance and articulates her turns and her balances, that shows her control."

Politicians and influencers

With the freedom to create a new ballet, Topp decided to update the story.

While Shakespeare's Macbeth is set more than 400 years ago in Scotland, her version takes the story into the modern realm of politicians and boardrooms.

The witches who prophesise Macbeth will one day become King of Scotland were initially re-imagined as reporters, before Topp decided that making them social media influencers, and Macbeth a politician made more sense.

"We talked about the fact that influencers change outcomes rather than reporting on news and that relationship between politicians and social media," she says.

Without being bound to steps created 100 years ago, as she would have been with a classic ballet like Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, Topp and the dancers were free to discover what worked as they went along.

"When there are no predetermined steps, the journey to discover this language is definitely very collaborative with the dancers, and it's very individual," she says.

Ballet for new audiences

Also created specifically for the ballet was the score, a collaboration with Australian composer Christopher Gordon.

Gordon's score combines classical composition with his love of heavy metal and uses musicians from around the world.

"Given that we were bringing Macbeth into this modern political landscape with all of this global instability and turbulence … the music really gave it a charged edge and set us apart and reflected the world that we wanted to inhabit with the electric guitar and the heavy metal," Topp says.

Instead of a full orchestra, eight musicians from the West Australian Symphony Orchestra will perform live, in combination with pre-recorded elements from overseas guest artists.

"It gives it a completely full cinematic sound which we probably couldn't do in the pit."

Topp says she hopes it brings a new audience to ballet, and to Shakespeare.

"It introduces [it to] a new audience who think ballet is just tutus and tulle and tiaras and classical music."

"I really hope that people can come along, people not familiar with Macbeth as a story, or maybe not even interested in ballet, but could come along not knowing Shakespeare, come along and really enjoy the theatre experience because it's not what you would expect of a ballet."