Lady Macbeth

Reid (Juniper & Thorn) reimagines the story of Lady Macbeth, shaping Shakespeare’s classic villainess into a more complex and sympathetic character. Seventeen-year-old Roscille, the daughter of the Duke of Breizh, has been forced to marry brutish Macbeth, the Thane of Glammis. Macbeth’s court is rough, hostile, and suspiciously lacking in women. Roscille, rumored to be a witch cursed with a supernaturally malevolent gaze, will have to draw upon all her powers to survive. What she does not know is that Macbeth has occult abilities of his own, and he will stop at nothing to achieve unassailable power and control. In the vein of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked or Eilish Quin’s Medea, Reid immerses listeners in a powerful story of survival, witchcraft, and coming-of-age as Roscille sheds her youth and insecurity and embraces her intelligence and desire. Imani Jade Powers shines as a narrator, deftly handling the many accents and dialects and tapping into the richness of Reid’s atmospheric setting and lush language.