Road to Dunsinane, The

Synopsis
Radio work written by Michael Innes that speculates in dramatic form the historical circumstances that might have induced Shakespeare to write Macbeth. The first part of the programme presents the historical Macbeth who visits Rome in order to obtain an interview with Pope Leo IX. The second part focuses on ‘The Poet’s Mind’. According to Radio Times programme notes, "Innes supposes that in 1599 Shakespeare was in Edinburgh with Laurence Fletcher’s company; that he there met William Drummond of Hawthornden, a precociously learned child of fourteen; and that since the Kirk sessions had banned Romeo and Juliet a new play had to be written at short notice" (10 November 1950, p. 41). Scenes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth are played by Oliver Burt and Grizelda Hervey, passages from Holinshed’s Chronicles are read by Howieson Cuff and Carleton Hobbs reads the author’s commentary.
Language
English
Country
Great Britain
Medium
Radio
Availability
No archive copy found
Notes
The part of the young laird of Hawthornden was played by fourteen-year-old Ian Gloag, a pupil at the Herriot Hospital, Edinburgh.

A BBC recording.
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Credits

Producer
Rayner Heppenstall
Writer
Michael Innes
Contributor
Carleton Hobbs; Howieson Culff
Cast
Alan Wheatley 
Bryan Powley 
Denise Bryer 
Dorothy Smith 
Frederick Valk 
Grizelda Hervey 
Helena Gloag 
Ian Gloag 
J. Hubert Leslie 
Jeremy Spenser 
Joan Matheson 
Malcolm Hayes 
Oliver Burt 
Richard Williams 
Robert Marsden 
Ronald Sidney 
Stanley Groome 

Production Company

Name

BBC

Notes
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
View this record on the Shakespeare site for additional details

Record Stats

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