Alan Cumming Explains His One-Man Macbeth

Alan Cumming has been waking up with bruises in strange places. He’s having anxiety dreams, too—“You know, things I love being destroyed,� he says, sipping a martini at a bar near his East Village apartment. “Last night I slept soundly. But I had to get up at 5:30, so maybe I hadn’t gotten started.�

Cumming has been enduring abuse—mental and physical, mostly self-inflicted—onstage every night in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Macbeth, open now at the Lincoln Center Festival, after a run in Glasgow. It differs from typical productions of Shakespeare’s tragedy in one key way: Cumming plays every role.

“It’s a lot to ask of anyone, especially a gentleman of mature years,� Cumming says, savoring the rolling r of “mature� in his native Scottish brogue, which he uses in various guises onstage. It’s also dark ­territory for a man who describes himself as a “Scottish elf trapped inside a middle-aged man’s body� and gleefully discusses plans to wear a new bespoke rainbow kilt to Macbeth’s New York premiere.

Cumming was fascinated by the twisted gender references in the play and initially wanted to do a version in which he’d tackle the title role one night and Lady Macbeth the next, but after a reading, “it wasn’t quite working for me.� Andy Goldberg, this production’s co-director, suggested a Macbeth set in a mental institution, with a patient playing all parts. “I was like, You know what? Yes.�

Though “doing something so impossible for my body and mind has been amazing,� Cumming calls the experience traumatic. “It has some juicy scenes and sexy bits,� he says, “but then it’s like, ‘Fuck. Me.’ It’s just madness, despair, and mental illness.� This week he’s been working his day job—­playing political consultant Eli Gold on The Good Wife—and happily so: “I tweeted ­today, ‘I’m back in my Eli drag.’ It was nice to be in a suit and not have to weep.�

By the end of this Macbeth, “I’m wet, in my underpants, disheveled, bruised, devastated, and coughing,� which might explain why, after a recent performance, his family greeted him backstage with worried looks. “My mom was like, ‘You’re too skinny, be careful, you’re going to have a nervous breakdown,’ � Cumming says. His husband, Grant, “was afraid I was going to fall off a chair. My nephew was worried I’d eaten an apple that had been on the floor.� (He uses one as a prop when playing Banquo.)

But Cumming insists he leaves ­Macbeth—and all fourteen supporting characters—onstage. “[My family] was all so stressed, and I was like, ‘La la la!’ � he says, the elfin twinkle returned to his eye. “ ‘Cheers, everybody! Nobody died!’ �

Click on to see a gallery of Cumming’s many expressions, all of which come in handy in the production.

This story appeared in the July 16, 2012 issue of New York Magazine.