Worthing production offers return to life-defining role of Macbeth

“When I was 16, I played Macbeth and it was a production that changed my life. I did it at school at West Sussex Theatre Studio which was a private school in Worthing. We had normal lessons in the morning and then in the afternoon we did-arts related things, dance, singing and acting, and in my last year I did Macbeth. Until then I wanted to become a professional musician following in my father's footsteps. But doing that production changed everything for me. I fell in love with Shakespeare and the drama of the play and I discovered that I had an acting talent that was probably latent but which got the opportunity to express itself in Macbeth. And I think it was because of the musical talent that I'd inherited from my father that I had a feeling for the musicality of the verse and was able to pick it up. I realised then that I wanted to go and train as an actor and really to do Shakespeare.

“We've done Macbeth in the past at Highdown Gardens but I didn't play Macbeth. I played Macduff but really to be revisiting the role in Worthing now feels so strange. I started learning my lines the other day but weirdly I found that they had stayed in my mind from when I did it as a 16 year old, that the script was still there. I revisited Leontes last year and had to spend a lot of time on the script but having played Macbeth at the age of 16 the lines really do seem to have stuck with me.

“It is quite a dark play but there is humour in it as well, and I look for that. But I also think that it is quite important that people have a kind of sympathy or understanding for what the character is doing and why he is doing it. I don't think it will work if Macbeth is just a hated figure in the eyes of the audience. I think if you can reach out and find some sympathy for him then that makes him so much more watchable for the audiences. I always try to draw the audiences towards whatever character I'm playing. What draws the audience is the fundamental flaw of the tragic hero even if the hero turns out to be a villain and a tyrant but I think you've got to find something within him.”

Ross also takes the approach of one foot in and one foot out of the character: “You have to be conscious that this is live theatre and you've got to be conscious of what is happening in the moment with the audience. I remember whoever it was who said that the main job of actors is to ‘keep the b*ggers awake!’, and I think if you get too method then you lose the sense of acting and you lose the sense of play-acting.”

Macbeth runs from Tuesday, July 8-Sunday, July 13, offering battles, witches, murder, ghosts and things that go bump in the night – all the ingredients that make a thrilling, theatrical experience in a spine-chilling, spooky play about a scheming wife and her ambitious husband.

Much Ado About Nothing runs from Tuesday, July 15-Sunday, July 20, two intertwined love stories: one, where the feisty Benedick and equally fiery Beatrice believe fervently they can’t stand each other – but their friends have other ideas. The second, where the romantic Claudio and Hero woo and prepare to wed, only to have the match threatened by the villainous Don John.

Tickets available through Worthing Theatres box office on 01903 206206 or wtm.uk or on the gate 90 minutes before each performance. Visit www.rainbowshakespeare.co.uk for more information.