Ralph Fiennes to play Macbeth in converted warehouses

Game of Thrones actress Indira Varma will star as Lady Macbeth opposite Ralph Fiennes

Warehouses in the UK and the US will be temporarily transformed into theatres for a new production of Macbeth starring Ralph Fiennes.

The actor will star in the adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy, which will play in Edinburgh, London and Liverpool, before transferring to Washington DC.

Game of Thrones actress Indira Varma will star as Lady Macbeth.

Fiennes said he was "truly excited" to be working on the project.

"Macbeth is a play that always carries relevance but with wars in Ukraine and Sudan - and murderous authoritarian regimes very present in the world - the play seems particularly current," he continued.

"But Shakespeare's examination of the minds of his protagonists - the intimate nature of this - is what gives the play its brilliant and terrifying focus."

The Shakespeare Theatre Company's artistic director Simon Godwin will helm the production, eight years after he brought Fiennes and Varma together for Man and Superman at the National Theatre

Godwin said he was "thrilled to be reuniting with Ralph and Indira" for Macbeth, which he described as "a remarkable portrait of a marriage and a terrifying account of the drift towards tyranny".

The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Simon Godwin (left) will direct Varma and Fiennes

Fiennes is best known for appearing in films such as The Menu, The English Patient, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Constant Gardner and Schindler's List, which won him a Bafta for best supporting actor in 1993.

He also played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter film series, and M in the Daniel Craig era of James Bond.

Varma played the vengeful Ellaria Sand in Game of Thrones, and is currently in Netflix's drama Obsession, having been part of the cast for last year's The Seagull, at the National Theatre.

The new adaptation of Macbeth will be produced by Wessex Grove, the team behind current West End hit A little Life, and Underbelly, the team behind the Olivier-winning Cabaret.

The show will open in Liverpool on 24 November for three weeks, before playing in Edinburgh in January and London in February, and Washington in April 2024.

Tickets for the British shows will go on sale in June. The exact locations of the "site-specific warehouses" have not yet been announced.

Godwin said: "The experience will be heightened by playing in different spaces across different cities before ending our journey - during a US election year - in America's capital.

"I'm thrilled to be embarking on an international journey driven by Shakespeare's capacity to urgently reflect our shared and volatile present."

Varma said she looked forward to working with Godwin and Fiennes again, and "exploring Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's fraught relationship and the play's themes of ambition and corruption".