New Canon Theatre Company makes its debut with 'Macbeth', a timeless story of ambition at all costs.

It all began with Macbeth.

When Justine Stock met Justin Gordon at the end of 2019, and the two started dreaming about starting their own theater company, the play they bonded over was Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Both had yearned to be part of a production of this dark tale of ambition.

So it seems poetic that Stock and Gordon’s nascent nonprofit theater company, New Canon Theatre Co., will present Macbeth as the first play of its first season. Opening night is July 29.

Of course, a lot has happened in the time between Stock and Gordon’s first conversations about the play and this staging. We’ve lived through a pandemic and an attempted coup, through escalating climate crises and unconscionable violence in our schools, grocery stores and places of worship.

To Gordon, who directs the play, all this makes Macbeth more timely than ever. “I think now, at this moment in our society, it’s a more relevant piece than it would have been three years ago,” he says.

(The fast-paced story involves Scottish General Macbeth hearing a prophecy that he will someday be king – and at the urging of his wife, Lady Macbeth, a violent effort to make it so.)

Gordon’s take on the Shakespearean drama features simple staging and costuming and actor-driven non-stop action, all meant to lend the audience an appreciation for the athleticism and stamina of the eight actors on stage. Gordon takes a collaborative approach to his role as director – it’s a style similar to how he imagines it would have worked during the play’s original stagings in the 1600s, and one that opens possibilities for creativity.

“We [the director] don’t have all the answers all the time,” he says.

The two-week run (including a pay-what-you-can night on Thursday, Aug. 4 and a director’s chat with Gordon on closing night, Aug. 6) isn’t just a play – it’s the launch of the theater company.

Gordon and Stock are looking forward to seeing who turns up – both believe that there’s room for a theater company like New Canon in Monterey County. But proof will come when an audience fills the theater.

“We just want to do work that interests us, and contribute to the community,” Gordon says.

It all begins with Macbeth.

MACBETH, 7:30pm Wednesday-Sunday, and 2pm Sunday matinées, July 27 to Aug. 6. Carmel High School Performing Arts Center, 27990 Doris Watson Place, Carmel. $40; discounted tickets for seniors, students, military and teachers. newcanontheatre.org