Max Webster on staging 'Macbeth' and 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at the same time

Director Max Webster is behind two of the biggest shows currently on the London stage: The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Ncuti Gatwa and Sharon D Clarke, and Macbeth, with Cush Jumbo and David Tennant.

One of the big highlights of this year’s Christmas theatre season is a revival of Oscar Wilde’s beloved social comedy The Importance of Earnest at the National Theatre, starring Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa and Sharon D Clarke, who is set to appear in the new Wicked film. With its playful Barbie-pink poster design, it may seem the polar opposite of another big London show, the brooding David Tennant and Cush Jumbo-led Macbeth which has transferred from the Donmar Warehouse to the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre, yet these two productions (both, coincidentally, starring a Time Lord), are helmed by the same visionary British director, Max Webster.

It caps off an extraordinary decade of work from Webster, who has made his mark in both opera and theatre. His recent, thrillingly innovative adaptation of the seemingly impossible-to-stage novel Life of Pi won multiple Olivier and Tony Awards, while his Macbeth creates an unusual experience of Shakespeare’s oft-staged tragedy through its intimate binaural sound world, which audiences hear via special headphones.

Is it challenging moving the latter into the West End? Webster, who was backstage at the Harold Pinter Theatre when we spoke, says it’s quite the opposite. “What’s brilliant is that the headphones keep it intimate. You can have the experience of these actors being in your head, even in a larger theatre. In a weird way it’s almost better.”

He has always loved play, he explains: “When you read it, it’s got some of the most amazing lines in the English language, and it’s complicated and rich and psychological. One of things I wanted to do is really help the audience listen to the play, and to shape it so you hear it afresh.”

Likewise Webster is eager to reclaim Wilde’s 1895 comedy, which has become such a classic of the repertoire that we’ve lost sight of its boldness, he notes. “Someone said to Wilde ‘Oh, The Importance of Being Earnest, it’s like a perfect trifle, isn’t it?’, and Wilde replied ‘No, no, I wanted it to be more like a pistol shot.’ I think he meant that the queer subtext is really daring and he was amazed that he got away with it.” That “subversive and naughty and out there” quality, Webster adds, “resonates with what’s more sayable now in modern culture. I think that can be really fun.”

It should work perfectly for what will likely be a mixed audience – everyone from Wilde diehards through to fans of Gatwa’s hit TV work, including Doctor Who and Netflix comedy Sex Education. “I hope so,” agrees Webster. “We’re aiming for a version that’s true to Wilde, in terms of the language and the jokes and the story, but also says to another generation ‘Actually look, this author was extraordinary, he was an Irish gay socialist, and you’ll have a really good night out!’”

Webster is interested in Wilde’s take on 19th-century social change, and how that translates to a surprisingly modern message. “Because of the Industrial Revolution and money pouring into England through the British Empire, there was a surge of wealth in the middle classes. So upper-class manners became more strict and formalised – how you sit, how you do calling cards, how you take tea properly – as a way of keeping the aristocracy exclusive, because it’s not enough to just have money.

“That hardening of those categories is what Wilde is satirising. But if you go outwards from rules around teacake to rules around identity in general, what he’s saying is that all these rules are absurd and arbitrary, and that everyone ought to be free to be ourselves – we shouldn’t be put into boxes of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or class. We should be able to write the story of our own lives. That’s why the play feels so liberating and euphoric.”

This production is also notable for starring wonderful Black actors such as Gatwa and Clarke. Webster believes in race-conscious (rather than race-blind) casting, and says they will have conversations about how it enhances the meaning of the play. “Of course when Wilde wrote it, the actors on the stage reflected the audience who came to the theatre. What we’re doing now is casting a group of actors who hopefully reflect the London audience coming today.”

Earnest has long been a part of Webster’s life: his father was in a student production, and a young Max had a teddy named Algy, after the play’s Algernon. His parents are both non-fiction publishers, and have always been very supportive of his directorial aspirations, he says. “They let me live at home [in London] throughout my 20s, which is basically how I managed it!”

After reading English at the University of Cambridge, Webster had a formative experience training at L’École Jacques Lecoq in Paris. That helped to shape his distinctive directing style, which still rigorously interrogates the text, but is highly attuned to theatre’s physical, visual, and aural possibilities. He was also very inspired by Nicholas Hytner’s tenure at the National Theatre and how he “opened the door to a broader style of theatre-making in the building. That felt very exciting, as someone who wants to make work slightly differently.”

Webster is passionate about what he terms “imaginative or poetic or theatrical theatre.” Life of Pi is the prime example: “You can’t put the sea on stage in a literal way, so it’s immediately a story which demands a level of invention. There’s also a political commitment to that: theatre becomes a place in which we collectively have the bravery to imagine the world in a different way from what it is now.”

Webster has more work in development, he teases – and, since music is already a key part of his shows, he would love to do a musical in future. For now, he’s excited about creating a life-affirming Earnest for festive audiences. “There’s lots of difficult stuff happening in the world at the moment. Theatre can bring people together in joy and celebration, and I can’t think of a more joyful show for Christmas.”

Book Macbeth tickets on London Theatre.

Check back for The Importance of Being Earnest tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: Max Webster. Photo by Marc Brenner. Inset: with David Tennant in rehearsals for Macbeth and artwork for The Importance of Being Earnest