The Royal Shakespeare Company is getting into video games, obviously

Adding new, possibly not-intended context to the line from Macbeth where Shakespeare calls his three witches “posters of the sea and land,” The Royal Shakespeare Company is launching a new video game that reimagines the weird sisters as modern-day computer hackers, snooping around the desktop of Lady Macbeth.

This slightly radical interpretation of the Folios is titled Lili, and will be the first video game production from the RSC, working in association with studios iNK Stories and Alambic Production. Drawing some immediate comparisons to the work of Her Story creator Sam Barlow—including featuring live-action video footage of Iranian performer Zar Amir as its Lady Macbeth—the game will update the play’s Scottish setting to a “a stylised, neo-noir version of modern-day Iran.” From screenshots, it looks like players will spend their time poking around a fictional computer interface, observing video diaries and piecing this new version of the very famous story together.

Intersections between Shakespeare and gaming have been rare, but not non-existent: Grand Theft Hamlet, a doc that observes actors attempting to stage a version of Hamlet inside Grand Theft Auto Online, is currently making the festival rounds; on the video game side, 2019 adventure game Elsinore mashed-up the Bard’s work with Groundhog Day, putting you in the shoes of doomed heroine Ophelia as she desperately tries to keep everyone she loves from acting like idiots and brutally murdering each other. (We can also slot in here Ryan North’s Shakespearean gamebooks To Be Or Not To Be and Romeo And/Or Juliet, which delightfully reimagine the plays in the Choose Your Own Adventure style.) This is the first time that a major Shakespeare company like the RSC has gotten involved, though, lending a bit of gravitas to the proceedings. Lili is reportedly slated for release some time later in 2025.

[via PC Gamer]