The core story remains a classic tragedy centered on the Macbeth couple's moral collapse after murder and usurpation. Casting features David Tennant as Macbeth and Cush Jumbo as Lady Macbeth in a modern Donmar Warehouse staging; while Jumbo's selection as the lead adds visible diversity to a historically white-cast role, Shakespeare provides no racial descriptors, making this incidental modern theater practice rather than a deliberate swap of canon.

Additional elements include gender-blind ensemble casting (e.g., non-binary actor Ros Watt as Malcolm, actors doubling roles) and psychological framing around the couple's grief over a lost child, PTSD, and postnatal depression, reflected in a trigger warning and directorial choices. These represent light contemporary updates that do not supplant the plot or deliver activist messaging.