Suzy Sampson and Adam West are jousting good- naturedly over whether to utter Macbeth by name while rehearsing for the same production that they're working on.
Actors and theatre people consider it bad luck to mention the name of Shakespeare's action-packed and edgy psychological thriller while inside a theatre. Shakespeare is reputed to have used a real witches' spell in his work, angering them and inciting them to lay a curse on the play.
Sampson, who plays Lady Macbeth, says: 'It's not rubbish.' West, the producer, says: 'Oh come on. You don't really believe that do you?'
Sampson replies that West mentioned the word Macbeth during their previous collaboration in As You Like It. 'The rostrum ended up collapsing,' she says.
West chose the play, to be staged by Stylus Productions at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, because 'it's not obscure, it's relatively short and has a great narrative'.
Of the murder that is pivotal to the story, he says: 'It's like a Hitchcock film. It's essentially a killing in a castle and even though we don't see it, it still feels terrifying. Shakespeare shows what such an act does to the people involved without having to worry about the blood and guts like you'd see in, say, Rambo.'