Studio 919 DC Brings the US Premiere of Macbeth's Midsummer Night's Dream to The Writer's Center
Shakespeare's most ambitious murderer has been given a strange new lease on life. Studio 919 DC, the Washington-based independent avant-garde theatre company, presents the US premiere of Macbeth's Midsummer Night's Dream, an original absurdist dark comedy that mixes Shakespearean tragedy, contemporary realism and high-energy hip-hop. The production plays The Writer's Center Theater in Bethesda for two performances only, Saturday, Dec 5, 2026 at 7:00 PM and Sunday, Dec 6, 2026 at 3:00 PM.
The play follows Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from the Elizabethan era into the present day. It begins on familiar ground, with the classical couple murdering their way to the crown. That first step into what the play calls "possibility" plants a seed of karma that will follow them for four hundred years. From there the heavy tragedy gets pulled into black comedy and farce through an encounter in the nether-world. Then it shifts without warning into a contemporary middle-class living room. In that modern setting, Macbeth's cruelty has become quieter, more ruthless and free of any limits, and above all he has learned to explain it all away.
The central idea of the piece is that Macbeth has lasted four centuries not because he never died, but because the world keeps giving him new ways to live. Even the people who see through him are still stuck living in his world. That idea gives the evening its mix of laughter and dread. The production asks audiences to consider how much of Macbeth's hunger for power, money and control has simply put on new clothes and moved in next door.
Two performers play all six roles, a pair of Macbeths and Lady Macbeths for each era the story passes through. Ajay Bawa, who starred in Studio 919 DC's critically acclaimed Something Crazy, shares the stage with Lu Wang, a playwright and former professional stage actor. Wang also wrote and directed the production. Familiar hip-hop rhythms run through the play as part of its own theatrical language, so Shakespeare's verse and street culture collide in a way that is both jarring and exhilarating.
Macbeth's Midsummer Night's Dream comes to the area fresh from its world premiere at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, where audiences responded warmly. One audience member praised the two leads for creating moments of real intensity and emotion alongside scenes of pure, joyful silliness. The same viewer called the show the kind of risk-taking work that Fringe theatre is meant to celebrate.
Lu Wang is a bilingual playwright and director whose work explores where culture, identity and resilience meet. Her plays have been staged in both Chinese and English, and she brings an international outlook to American theater with stories that pair humor with deep emotional truth. That outlook fits Studio 919 DC's mission. The company is dedicated to original playwriting and cross-cultural theatrical practice, and to exploring contemporary survival, sacrifice and choice.
With a running time of about 60 minutes, Macbeth's Midsummer Night's Dream offers a compact, darkly comic evening where love, power, money and morality crash into one another. Theatregoers who like their Shakespeare turned inside out, or who enjoy bold new work from the region's independent companies, should act fast, since the run is only two performances. The Writer's Center Theater is located at 4508 Walsh Street in Bethesda, Maryland, and tickets are on sale now.