ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY AND iNK STORIES ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP ON INNOVATIVE MACBETH-INSPIRED VIDEO GAME, LILI
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY AND iNK STORIES ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP ON INNOVATIVE MACBETH-INSPIRED VIDEO GAME, LILI
LILI STARS CANNES BEST ACTRESS WINNER ZAR AMIR AS LADY MACBETH
The Royal Shakespeare Company has today announced a new collaboration with iNK Stories, a New York based independent game studio and publisher, to create a new game, Lili. Set in contemporary Iran, this interactive, trailblazing vision from iNK Stories puts Lady Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most iconic female leads, front and centre.
This cross-industry collaboration marks the RSC's debut in video gaming. Starring Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir as Lady Macbeth (Lili), the game is co-produced by her Paris-based Alambic Production. Zar draws from her lived experience as an Iranian woman in exile who has courageously confronted her own battles against authoritarian gendered oppression.
Lili is a screen life thriller video game which gives players access to Lady Macbeth's personal devices, combining the skill and artistry of theatre and film to tell this interactive story. Players will be immersed in a stylized, neo-noir vision of modern Iran, where surveillance and authoritarianism are part of daily life. The gameplay will feature a blend of live-action cinema within an interactive game format, giving players the chance to immerse themselves in the world of Lady Macbeth and make choices that influence her destiny.
Macbeth’s witches are reimagined as hackers, with surveillance cameras and cyber-infiltration putting the player at the heart of the story and giving them a unique perspective into the world of the play. This modern twist on the Macbeth story explores themes of technological domination, the manipulation of information, and institutional violence, reflecting the dark realities of inequities in our digital age.
Vassiliki Khonsari, Co-Founder of iNK Stories said:
“The partnership between iNK Stories and the Royal Shakespeare Company is a landmark collaboration, bringing together two creative forces to unlock the profound potential of adapting Shakespeare’s timeless masterpieces for contemporary audiences. It pushes the boundaries of storytelling, marking an inflection point in the depth of expression within commercial video games and expanding the creative vision of the RSC into new, interactive territory. A video game based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a thrilling endeavour that transforms one of literature’s darkest and most compelling tales - of gender, ambition, fate, power, and morality into an immersive, interactive experience.”
Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, RSC Co-Artistic Directors said:
“From its first performance, Macbeth was always exhilarating: its sudden opening with thunder and lightning raises audience adrenaline levels and propels them as participants, not just spectators, into the jittery, action-driven narrative. Lili creates similar effects for audiences. As a storytelling medium, gaming today is what theatre has always been; a chance to explore worlds, inhabit story, and experience something at once personal and communal. Centring this tense thriller around Lady Macbeth rather than her husband is radical and transformative. It turns the play’s questions around gender, identity and power inside out.”
Emma Smith, RSC Board member and leading Shakespeare academic at Hertford College, Oxford has worked on the adaptation of the text, and added:
“Lili takes up Shakespeare’s character-based exploration of political ambition, personal compromise, and distorted human lives under tyranny, and transports these themes to contemporary Iran. It is both utterly Shakespearean, and radically defamiliarized. Forget the old chestnut that Shakespeare would be writing for Hollywood if he were alive now: what Lili makes absolutely clear is - he’d be writing for gaming.”
Lili is now in development and slated for release later in 2025 with the final release accessible across gaming platforms.
This exciting new collaboration builds on iNK’s acclaimed, genre-defining game
1979 Revolution: Black Friday, which garnered over 20 top industry honours, including a BAFTA nomination, Meta’s Game of the Year award, the Indiecade Grand Jury Prize, and a special UNESCO award. The game has also been showcased at prestigious venues such as the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Doha Forum, and the Museum of the Moving Image.
Zar Amir is a French-Iranian actress, producer and director. She won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2022 for her performance in the film Holy Spider. In 2023, she co-directed the film Tatami, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Through her cinematic projects and her voice advocating for change for women in Iran, Zar was part of the BBC 100 Women 2022.
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
This project was supported by equipment awarded as part of a Creative Research Capability grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s mission is to bring people together to experience stories that deepen our understanding of ourselves, each other and the world around us, and that bring joy. Shakespeare’s restless exploration of all of human nature is our inspiration and touchstone.
The Company’s roots lie in the bold vision of a local brewer, Edward Fordham Flower, who in 1879 established a theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with his son Charles. The RSC as we know it today was formed by Sir Peter Hall, whose ambition was to produce new plays alongside those of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. We continue this today across our three permanent theatres in Stratford – the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre and The Other Place – and indeed online and around the globe. We believe everybody’s life can be enriched by culture and creativity. Our transformative Creative Learning and Engagement programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year. We have collaborated with generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future.
About iNK Stories: iNK Stories is an award-winning independent development studio based in New York City, celebrated for its signature storytelling and its emotionally resonant, narratively rich gaming experiences that captivate audiences worldwide. Founded by trailblazers Navid and Vassiliki Khonsari, the studio brings a distinctive pedigree from blockbuster AAA game franchises and narrative immersive experiences to develop its acclaimed original titles. iNK Stories upcoming slate features an innovative convergence of cinema and gaming.
About Alambic: Founded in 2019 in Paris by Zar Amir, Alambic was designed as a flexible yet structured company, capable of hosting international projects with recognized expertise in Middle Eastern cultures. It stands out for its projects driven by a co-production approach that fosters exchanges between technical and artistic expertise. Among them, Holy Spider, was acclaimed for its reconstruction of 2000s Iran.
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.www.artscouncil.org.uk
