In the fall of 2020, the Elite Theatre Company–unable to present productions on its Oxnard, California, stages–was running low on digital fare to offer its audiences, so for Halloween, Bill Walthall adapted Macbeth as a digital offering, Minds Full of Scorpions.

Minds Full of Scorpions is a stripped-down, twenty-five minute re-imagining of the tragedy which dramatizes the fragmented remembrances of the King and Queen in the moments before their deaths, as the two characters relive the moments and decisions that have brought them to this point, hearing the voices of the past, as well as imagining what their “dearest partner of greatness” has experienced. The performance of the stellar cast–Genevieve Levin as the Queen and Adam Womack as the King, with Ezra Eells, Rosie Gordon, and Dani Orjala providing the chorus of 12 voices haunting the royal couple–was captured live on stage at the Elite, then streamed on the Elite’s YouTube channel.

Minds Full of Scorpions is now available on the FireMuse Shakespeare’s YouTube channel.