The Washington Shakespeare Company is taking Virginian audiences by surprise with its titillating twist on that cursed “Scottish Play.” The new version of the Shakespearean classic calls for the cast of “Macbeth” to disrobe for each performance.

Jose Carrasquillo, the play's director and proud inventor of the naked “Macbeth,” wanted to create an environment that pictured the Scots as he believes Shakespeare himself had imagined them. He researched the play by reading much of the Scottish history Shakespeare was believed to have read before writing the play. Carrasquillo felt these texts described “a really tribal, almost animal-like clan and society.” With these descriptions inspiring his ideas for the Company's production of “Macbeth,” the fully nude play was dreamt up.

So far, the play has been receiving mixed reviews but is consistently drawing in audiences. It seems that Shakespeare fanatics and newcomers alike cannot resist the temptation of royalty, sorcery and murder in the buff.