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Balfe’s last day on set, a sprawling seven-page scene that Heughan performed in front of their longtime crew, “was so hard, but also one of the most beautiful moments in my time on Outlander,” she tells VF. “That it was Sam and I, sharing a loving Claire and Jamie moment where they reflected on their lives together, was so fitting, and I was so grateful to be there with Sam, my steadfast partner throughout this whole series.”

Sam Heughan, the Scottish star of Outlander, amply proves his mettle in his RSC debut

Sam Heughan, the rugged Scottish star of Outlander, amply proves his mettle in his RSC debut as Macbeth, even if he and Lia Williams’s Lady M make an odd couple – thick as thieves yet strangely incompatible...

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It has been called the “Outlander effect” — the way the time-travelling TV adventure romance has boosted Scottish tourism. So let’s call the scant supplies of tickets left for RSC’s Macbeth the “Sam Heughan effect”.

Heughan, the 45-year-old Scottish actor famous for playing Jamie Fraser in Outlander, makes a plausible, mountingly compelling RSC debut as Shakespeare’s overambitious Scottish warrior. If he is too brittle to quite be knowable enough as he confides in the audience early on, he excels later as his deeds get darker while his conscience weighs heavier — a strong calling card for his post-Outlander (the final series arrives next year) career.

Sam Heughan and Lia Williams, who plays Lady Macbeth HELEN MURRAY

Will it become a theatrical legend in the same way the last Macbeth staged in the RSC’s studio space was — the 1976 version starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench? That’s a high bar that Daniel Raggett’s hugely inventive, not entirely cogent production can’t clear. But it’s an atmospheric, intimate, surprising evening.

Some of the surprises come from time travelling too. Castle Dunsinane is a late-20th century gangland Glasgow public house with patterned carpet and handsomely spinning fan rotors in its false ceiling. A good night for the designer Anna Reid. The Weird Sisters sit around a pub table, which is lit by glowing lagers logos on the taps. Banquo’s ghost appears, drenched in blood, on the one spare bar stool when everyone else is sitting round four pub tables for the funeral banquet. There are a lot of vests, a few Hawaiian shirts and a singsong at the piano.

The audience sit on all four sides of the playing area. Can this pub conceit follow itself through for more than two hours? No, the moodier, smokier second half almost leaves it behind now and then, albeit you know just where you are as a mother and child are led off to be murdered with a hammer. Yet it ensures that the hostess Lady Macbeth, played by sassenach actress Lia Williams, is more prominent than usual. This fish-out-of-water older woman starts off very much the senior partner, is sidelined once her husband gets his hands dirty and haunts the central action long before her (startlingly well-staged) hanging. Is there enough of a spark between them to buy them as a couple, unified or divided? Not always: but Williams excels at trying to pull her husband back from the brink before she goes there herself.

This is a fast-moving Macbeth and between some cuts and the flattening of some of the hierarchies of the court there isn’t always time for the horrors to register. The final fight, with a cadaverous Macduff (Alec Newman) — whose horror at the murder of his children was a thing to behold — is disappointingly brief. Yes, even after Macbeth has gone to the trouble of torching the gaff with a can of petrol. But it’s sometimes inspiring, never dull, and what’s more features another fine RSC debut from young Calum Ross as king-to-be Malcolm.

Rosalind Erskine IGS 27 September 2025

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Introducing the company of the Scottish play 🗡

Featuring: Michael Abubakar, @eilidhjfisher, Gilly Gilchrist, @samheughan, Nicholas Karimi, @jamesterx, Irene Macdougall, johnnymcl, @conormcleodgoldenboy, @alec1newman, Christopher Patrick Nolan, Alison Peebles, calumrossofficial, and Lia Williams

Directed by Daniel Raggett, Shakespeare's story of love, power and ambition comes to The Other Place this autumn

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RSC confirms full Macbeth cast joining Sam Heughan and Lia Williams

The Scottish play returns in a new production – with on-stage seating

Sam Heughan, Alec Newman and Lia Williams, headshots supplied by the RSC

The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced full casting for its upcoming production of Macbeth, directed by Daniel Raggett, running at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon from 9 October to 6 December 2025.

As previously revealed, Sam Heughan will make his RSC debut in the title role opposite Lia Williams as Lady Macbeth.

Joining them will be Alec Newman as Macduff, Nicholas Karimi as Banquo, and Alison Peebles, Eilidh Fisher and Irene Macdougall as the witches.

The wider company features Michael Abubakar as Lennox, Gilly Gilchrist as Duncan/Siward, Jamie Marie Leary as Lady Macduff, John McLarnon as Ross, Conor McLeod as Angus, Christopher Patrick Nolan as Priest, and Calum Ross as Malcolm.

The production will also offer bar-style seating for all performances, with additional Saturday evening performances added on 8 and 22 November following high demand.

Raggett, whose Edward II played in the Swan Theatre earlier this year, leads a creative team including Anna Reid (set and costume), Ryan Day (lighting), Tingying Dong (sound), Alex Payne (fight direction) and Rebecca Latham (dramaturgy). Casting is by Charlotte Sutton.

Speaking about the production, Raggett said: “Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a play that needs no introduction. With the RSC’s last production of it only two years ago there’s no reason to revive it unless you’re going to look at it with fresh eyes – and along with this exceptional, almost exclusively Scottish, company that is what I intend to do.”

Tickets are available via the RSC box office

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