The Royal Shakespeare Company is producing its first videogame, inspired by Macbeth

Lili Macbeth Royal Shakespeare Company
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Zar Amir is to star in The Royal Shakespeare Companyā€™s first videogame, Lili ā€“ an interactive thriller inspired by Macbeth.


By the pricking of our thumbs, something interactive this way comes. Or something. The Royal Shakespeare Company, previously better known for its theatrics, is turning its hand to videogames with the forthcoming Lili. Itā€™s an interactive noir thriller loosely inspired by Macbeth, and will star actor and director Zar Amir (Holy Spider, Tatami).

Flipping the Bardā€™s script somewhat, the story will revolve around Amirā€™s Lady Macbeth (known to her friends as Lili), the resident of a stylised Iran which has become an authoritarian state. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lili will employ the assistance of some familiar witches, here ā€˜reimaginedā€™ as hackers capable of manipulating the stateā€™s security cameras and spying apparatus.

Going by the premise and the use of live-action footage, Lili appears to be closely inspired by the ingenious work of Sam Barlow, the designer whoā€™s turned the FMV game genre into something of an artform in recent years. Her Story, Telling Lies and Immortality all ask players to manipulate and comb through footage in order to uncover hidden truths. All are worth playing; The BAFTA-winning Immortality, in particular, is a haunting interactive horror thriller with images that, once seen, are pretty hard to forget.

Read more: Immortality | Creators and stars discuss the gameā€™s hidden secrets

As for Lili, itā€™s in development at New York-based studio iNK, while Zar Amirā€™s own production company, Alambic, will co-produce alongside the RSC. Itā€™s something of a personal piece for Amir, with the story taking in her own experiences of living in Iran according to the RSCā€™s website.

Lili takes up Shakespeare’s character-based exploration of political ambition, personal compromise, and distorted human lives under tyranny, and transports these themes to contemporary Iran,” said RSC board member Emma Smith in a statement. ā€œForget the old chestnut that Shakespeare would be writing for Hollywood if he were alive now: what Lili makes absolutely clear is – he’d be writing for gaming.”

Fun fact: the revolutionary ZX Spectrum computer was released on 23rd April 1982 ā€“ exactly 366 years after Shakespeare was born. We quite like to think that, had the Bard been alive in the 1980s, heā€™d have been sitting in his bedroom programming games like Jet Set Macbeth or Hamlet Goes Skiing.

Lili is due for release later in 2025, with target platforms still to be announced. Gadzooks!

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