Birnam Wood is a long-term creative enquiry inspired by William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Developed over sixteen years (2004–2019), the project explored recurring questions around trees, landscape, mythology, ritual, women’s collective experience, political power and memory. Rather than creating a single definitive adaptation, each new development revisited the enquiry in a different context, allowing new collaborators, places and communities to reshape the work.

Beginning as Beastly Beauties with final-year Drama students at the University of Birmingham, the project continued through collaborations with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Flash Ley Community Primary School, Melton College, the University of Salford and the University of Manchester.

Alongside these theatre-based developments, the enquiry gradually moved into the landscape. Birnam Wood Comes to Hesketh Park marked an important turning point, exploring ecological and site-responsive approaches that would later inform my walking practice and the development of Follow the Stone and Walking Words.

Today, Birnam Wood stands not as a single production but as an evolving body of creative enquiry into Shakespeare, landscape, performance and collaborative creativity.

The project can be explored in three ways: through the Creative Archive films, the developing scripts and research materials, and reflections on the continuing journey of the enquiry.