Cumming, who received an OBE in 2009 for services to the arts and for his gay rights campaign work, said: “I have been obsessed with the play all my life. It was the first Shakespeare I was in, at the Tron in Glasgow.
“Speaking to John Tiffany in New York, earlier this year, I had this idea I wanted to swap the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, because there are so many things about gender, I thought it would be a really exciting idea to flip that.
“So we did this reading like that, in New York, and Andy Goldberg had this idea I should just play all the parts. Never one to refuse a challenge, we decided to do it.”
The play will be shown in Glasgow, Scotland, as well as in New York, as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s newly-announced 2012 season.
The programme also includes Glasgow Girls, a musical about teenage asylum seekers, My Shrinking Life, which examines life with multiple sclerosis , and a musical version of The Wicker Man.
NTS artistic director Vicky Featherstone said: “The National Theatre of Scotland was created to reach and appeal to a wide range of diverse audiences across Scotland. Our 2012 season, in collaboration with so many of Scotland’s extraordinary artists and companies is an example of that.”
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