Macbeth and Wicked: an unlikely combination questioning female villainy

Although inspiration lies in the heroism of Sophocles’ Antigone, Shakespeare’s Juliet, or Ibsen’s Nora, often the female villains are the characters that evoke the most intrigue. They are characters that audiences love to hate, often in the form of murderers, troublemakers, or witches. However, with recent adaptations highlighting the moral complexities of these ‘troubled’ women, the previous ‘black and white’ characterisation of female roles has become technicolour. Having recently come across adaptations of Macbeth and Wicked, it strikes me how female villains have a timeless quality, an attribute unveiled in recent productions that achieved critical acclaim and public resonance. Although the power of adaptation is in some cases nuanced and subtle, these two performances give audiences the space to question whether villainy is inherent or assigned, making a poignant commentary on the present day.

Lady Macbeth, a female villain catalysing one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, is a startling picture of female ruthlessness.

Our first female villain is a classic, perhaps the first ‘troublesome’ woman in theatre that comes to mind. The leading female role in Shakespeare’s Macbeth has always interested me through its originality, yet the role’s controlling nature is often portrayed as simply integral, rather than complex. Lady Macbeth, a female villain catalysing one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, is a startling picture of female ruthlessness. However, Max Webster’s renewal of the play debuting in January 2024, starring Cush Jumbo and David Tennant, highlights the ‘psychological’ in Shakespeare’s psychological drama, casting Lady Macbeth’s actions as resultant of PTSD from losing a child. Webster does well to highlight this psychological aspect through the ethereal quality of the 3D headphones, delivering the uneasy dialogue and sound directly to the audiences’ ears, reminiscent of Macbeth’s desire to “pour my spirits in thine ear; / And chastise with the valour of my tongue”.

The intimacy of the dialogue through the headphones is eerie, yet at the same time humanises our female protagonist, a character conniving yet also paranoid and fearful. As a practiced hand at reigniting Shakespearean roles for a modern audience, Jumbo’s Lady Macbeth echoes her Hamlet in the focus on familial grief. Jumbo herself stresses the flawed nature of Lady Macbeth’s two-dimensionality, arguing that “the greatest misconception is that we have stopped seeing Lady Macbeth as a human being”. Although the success of Webster’s integration of technology with Shakespearean theatre has been questioned, there is no doubt that Webster and Jumbo have discarded the archetypal villainous Lady Macbeth, depicting instead a morally-complex female protagonist that remains a groundbreaking female role in theatre.

it is not only Erivo’s insane, knockout vocals that make the Wicked movie a success, but also her timely and original portrayal of a character alienated by racial difference.

In contrast to Webster’s reimagining of Lady Macbeth’s psychological complexity, the recent adaption of the musical Wicked into an epic musical fantasy film franchise released in November 2024 increases the nuance of the racialised difference foregrounded in the musical itself. Wicked, a musical unpacking how characters are glorified or villainised in accordance with their identity, is evidently stratospherically popular, becoming the fourth longest-running and second highest-grossing musical on Broadway since its debut. Given that this is a theme obviously very resonant with audiences of musical theatre, Jon Chu effectively expands it by including the bullying in Elphaba’s childhood, stressing the unkind treatment of her to be continuously derived from her physical difference and identity. Cynthia Erivo herself brings a new significance to the role, seen through the addition of micro braids to Elphaba’s costume to honour the experiences of Black women. In an interview with Variety, Erivo states that her role in Wicked acts as “a love letter to everyone who feels different, who feels out of place, to all the Black women who have walked into rooms and felt like they haven’t been welcomed”. Therefore it is not only Erivo’s insane, knockout vocals that make the Wicked movie a success, but also her timely and original portrayal of a character alienated by racial difference. In managing to add gravitas to the plot, whilst evidently defying gravity herself, Erivo’s performance is outstanding and memorable!

Although these two female roles are an unusual combination, both recent adaptations add more depth to their original script and performance. There are many important examples of heroic women in theatre, but this revisiting of complex female characters – one villainous and the other villainised –  demonstrates how adaptation can transcend our initial perceptions of famous or infamous female characters. I hope that in 2025, many more ‘troublesome’ women can break the boundaries of female roles in theatre through their complex morality and unique individuality!