Next year Britain will be ‘country of honour’ at Mexico’s prestigious Festival Internacional Cervantino. To create a suitably high-impact event in the lead-up to the festival, leading new writing company Out of Joint was invited to take its site-specific promenade production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Mexico this October.

Directed by Max Stafford-Clark, the production transports Shakespeare's tale of murder and magic from Scotland to modern Africa and has been staged to date in factories, mills, backstage areas, a stately home, and a music hall.

Each year the Festival Internacional Cervantino focuses on the creative output of a different country. In 2006, the festival will aim to foster a long-lasting creative exchange between Britain and Mexico. The British Council will collaborate with approximately twelve performing arts groups, across music, dance and drama, to form a central focus for the festival.