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Trafalgar Studios, central London

This production has a lot going for it. It stars James McAvoy (Atonement, The Last King of Scotland) as Macbeth. It takes place in a reconfigured space that gives this steeply raked theatre greater intimacy. And, in launching a season of plays directed by Jamie Lloyd, it is one more step in the commercial theatre's realisation that its future lies in artistic continuity. But, although it's a good occasion, there's a relentlessly visceral quality to Lloyd's production that eventually becomes a bit wearing.

Lloyd certainly takes a bold line on the play: he sets it in a future Scotland wracked by environmental disaster and tribal conflict. This is a strange, savage, post-apocalyptic world evoked, in Soutra Gilmour's design, by grungy costumes, begrimed toilet bowls and, inevitably, a ceiling of broken glass.

You get the general idea in the first few moments when the three witches appear in gasmasks,...

Claire Foy has joined Jamie Lloyd's upcoming production of Macbeth as Lady Macbeth. The White Heat actress stars opposite James McAvoy, who has the title role, while the rest of the cast has also now been confirmed. They are Jamie Ballard (Macduff), Graeme Dalling (Donalbain), Lisa Gardner (Witch), Kevin Guthrie (Lennox), Richard Hansell (Ross), Forbes Masson (Banquo), Allison McKenzie (Witch), Olivia Morgan (Witch),Catherine Murray (Caithness), Callum O'Neill (Angus), Mark Quartley (Malcolm) and Hugh Ross (Duncan/Doctor). Macbeth runs from February 9 to April 27, 2013 at Trafalgar Studios. Lloyd said: "I am thrilled to announce the first production for Trafalgar Transformed - a season of politically-charged power plays on the doorstep of Whitehall, accompanied by a festival of platform events, discussions and readings. "We (more)...

Associated Press A student follows along during an in-class reading of “Catching Fire,” the second book in “The Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins, at a charter school in California.

As a professor of American literature who teaches a course on bestsellers, I’m often asked to justify using such “trashy” novels as “Gone With the Wind” and “Valley of the Dolls” in a college classroom. Snobbery towards popular novels is nothing new. Writing in The Guardian in 1713, Richard Steele...

Former River City star Allison McKenzie has revealed that she is in talks for a role in the new Sex And The City movie. The 32-year-old actress, who played Joanne Rossi in the BBC Scotland soap, confirmed that she is expecting to play a nanny or a sister of one of the main characters. Speaking to the Daily Record, McKenzie admitted: "I know every single look, word and sideward glance that was ever filmed for Sex And The City. I'm a huge fan. So I'd like to think that level of (more)...