The Story

The Story is a theatre production at the National Theatre Olivier in London, presented as an all-new reworking of Macbeth set in the Soho club scene of 1980s Britain.

The production transposes Shakespeare's tragedy into the shadowy backrooms and gay bars of Soho, where ambition, prophecy and betrayal play out against a backdrop of riots and a society that criminalises queerness. The source material frames the story around the struggle for power and the price of visibility, asking how far a character would go to rule when the law denies they exist.

The score draws on 1980s British pop and synth music, with the material naming Depeche Mode, Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys as touchstones for the sound of the period. Paranoia, broken loyalty and violence are central to the narrative, and the material describes the production as dark and defiant in tone, with its tragedy carried by the synth-driven setting.

The show is staged at the National Theatre Olivier, a venue that hosts concerts and shows in London. It will appeal to audiences interested in reworked classics, queer history and 1980s music on stage. Details of the cast and creative team are not given in the material, so they are not listed here.