Interview with Actors, Oliver Alvin-Wilson and Jo Mousley on Rehearsals for Macbeth

26 Jan 2026 | General News

We are excited to present Macbeth (Thursday 5 – Saturday 28 February), co-produced with Octagon Theatre Bolton and Derby Theatre.

Ahead of opening night, we caught up with actors, Oliver Alvin-Wilson and Jo Mousley who will play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to find out how rehearsals are going for Shakespeare’s most iconic tragedy.

Alvin-Wilson says “We are working fast and being playful, jumping in and seeing where we land. The first week of rehearsals was spent splicing bits together to see where it goes. I have learnt some lines in the dark on my own, and it was nice to be in the light with others. We are a good company who have connected, and everyone is playful, I’m enjoying, seeing why this play is relevant for now, asking what is our take on the world, what do we want to say? It’s been intense but it has also been fun.”

In a country ravaged by war and rebellion, Macbeth by any means possible sets out to become King, while his power-hungry wife sets him off on a murderous course to seize the crown. Are audiences expected to hate this power couple and judge them by their destructive actions?

Mousley says: “In my experience, hating something about a character (especially one who is seen as a villain?!) isn’t massively helpful in the process of playing them. A very wise director once told me, of an equally flawed character: ‘Don’t fight her, love her, sink into her pain and let her carry you’ So, I love Lady Macbeth’s passion and grit, her strength, her spirituality and her deep love for her husband.”

Alvin-Wilson also expresses more love than hate for his character: “I love Macbeth’s intelligence and interrogation of how he’s feeling and how he weighs things up. I feel like he is a soldier dealing with PTSD of being in war, and the PTSD from losing a child results in him being impulsive and is aware of being impulsive. His awareness is what I love about him; I think audiences at first, will empathise with him and understand that he Is trying to do the best that he can.”

Much of Shakespeare’s language is still in use today, and many schools will be attending this performance of Macbeth. We hope that by students developing a love of Shakespeare, they will discover a new way of improving their literacy skills through drama. Mousley believes there are too many wonderful Shakespeare lines to be choosing favourites!! But does love the feeling of the line... ‘Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts.’ “It’s the beginning of her journey into action. A call to arms of all her spiritual soldiers. My Lady Macbeth has a more pagan system of belief. There have been huge losses during the many years of conflict in our version of Macbeth, that she’s had to develop an inner strength connected to a world outside the one she lives in to keep any hope alive.”

Alvin-Wilson connects with the line….’To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus.’ “I love that, because it highlights the murkiness of what Macbeth is thinking, but also, for all of us. What do we do to have security, safety? How do we hustle? how do we fight for what we want and what we desire, and what does it take to keep that?”

For some, trying to understand the language of Shakespeare, it can seem daunting, but Mosely insists that Shakespeare is exciting and that he gives you it all to follow right there in the writing. “I’m not very good at sitting and reading his plays on my own, the cliche is that he wrote them to be performed and this is so true. I never fully appreciate the brilliance of his plays without speaking the lines aloud. Everything makes beautiful sense when you find the emotion behind his exquisite words.”

When watching the horrors of war, power hungry leaders and struggling societies has become part of our own lives, surely the story of Macbeth rings ever more relatable than before with it laying bare the human cost of unchecked ambition. Alvin-Wilson agrees… “It’s kind of like that Black Mirror question: How far are we willing to go for our family, for our legacy and for ourselves? How does power corrupt?”

 “We can currently see that the world all over, there are conflicts raging and there are human stories inside them all” Nods Mousley, “Pain, fear, the need for power and control drive people to do brutal things.”

Don’t miss this powerful and chilling production to find out if Macbeth and Lady Macbeth succeed in their ambitions with their sanity intact, or will they pay the ultimate price for their destructive actions?

Tickets are available via www.hulltruck.co.uk or by calling the Box Office on 01482 323638. Recommended age guidance 13+. A number of access and school’s performances are also available.