The excited chatter of the audience simmers down as the lights of Fairfax Studio dims, shrouding us in darkness: the performance is about to begin. A familiar rhythmic beat echoes as four dancers enter the stage, it is a tempo from my childhood that continues to haunt the recesses of my brain. Wait…are they doing that chant from Camp Rock?!

Every year, I religiously follow the release of Bell Shakespeare’s seasonal program, looking forward to the new and exciting adaptations of the wordsmith’s plays that will be toured across Australia. Over the years as an amateur Shakespeare enthusiast, I have witnessed my fair share of the many different creative ways his plays have been transformed and translated to a modern audience. So, imagine my delight as, in between the serious and intense looking posters of Julius Caesar and Macbeth, one of the new shows of their 2026 season features a hot pink banner and the tagline: “What if Macbeth was a 13-year-old child star?” I knew then and there that I had to see Mackenzie right away.

Written by Yve Blake, the creator of the award-winning theatre show FANGIRLS, and directed by Virginia Gay, Mackenzie follows the titular girl as she rises to stardom and faces the consequences of her insidious quest to become the “number one pop star” in the world. Structurally, the story of Mackenzie mirrors that of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, only rather than the Scottish King’s desperate plot to keep hold of his crown, we watch as the teenager navigates the treacherous industry of child television. In Blake and Gay’s electric reimagination of one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, Mackenzie (Kimberley Hodgeson) finds herself promoted from a background character of The Dahlia Show, to a sidekick, and all the way to becoming the star of her very own The Mackenzie Show—all after witnessing her makeup artist being seized by visions predicting her road to fame and success. Driven by her mother and her own ambitions to “make it”, Mackenzie will do anything it takes to maintain her star power and relevance.

As the opening of the show suggests, MacKenzie is bold and unapologetically silly as it brilliantly encapsulates the iconic, and at times cringeworthy, humour of the 2000s. In many ways, the play is a millennial period piece that nods to the cultural landscape created by Disney Channel and Nickelodeon during their peak in the early 2000s. It even features a scene with a certain infamous blonde talk show host herself! The costume design, in particular, effectively transports us to a time when wearing skirts over jeans and bowler hats was the height of fashion. Even the audience were invited to the immersive experience with the “Y2K” dress code on opening night, for which I had rummaged through my mother’s wardrobe to wear the skinniest scarf I could find. The soundtrack of Mackenzie is accompanied by four original songs, whose poppy, Hilary Duff-esque sound really elevates Hodgeson’s convincing performance as the glamorous and magnetic pop star. 

Ultimately, Macbeth is a timeless story about ambition and the costly lengths one is willing to take to fulfill them. I was impressed with how Mackenzie managed to simultaneously be an incredibly wacky parody of the 2000s child star era, while being unexpectedly poignant in its critiques about the entertainment industry. In every iteration of Macbeth since its first performance in 1606, every one of them asks its audience: to what extent was Macbeth’s downfall written in the stars? Was Macbeth responsible for his demise, or was his hand forced? When I was reading the play in year ten, it was difficult to sympathise with Macbeth. My impression of the doomed King was that of a pathetic, weak-willed man who too easily succumbed to Lady Macbeth’s manipulation and his own greed for power. However, when the fate of Macbeth is bestowed upon a teenage girl chasing stardom in Mackenzie, I found myself feeling empathetic towards Mackenzie. Throughout the play, Mackenzie faces the overwhelming pressure and expectations of her mother (who substitutes the role of Lady Macbeth in this retelling), producers, the media and her fans. Mackenzie’s suffocating fear of being replaced by the next breakout star manifests into erratic behaviours and, of course, cruel betrayals. While I may not understand Macbeth’s desire to rule the kingdom, I definitely know how it feels to be a thirteen-year-old with the weight of the world seemingly on her shoulders. In her last scene on stage, Mackenzie accepts that her career is finally over. Hodgeson delivers a moving performance that evoked deep pathos as the audience took in the tragic reality of being a child star in a demanding and unforgiving industry. The parallels drawn between Macbeth and Mackenzie are fascinating, but I guess what is a better way to make a modern audience understand Macbeth’s psychological turmoil than to put them in the shoes of a thirteen-year-old soon-to-be biggest pop star in the world?

From Shakespeare snobs to those hanging onto the nostalgia of growing up watching High School Musical and Hannah Montana during the heydays of child stars, Mackenzie is truly a play that anyone can enjoy. It is hilarious, campy, cleverly written and full of Easter eggs for those familiar with either Shakespeare’s work or the Y2K era. Even if you are into neither of those, you are still guaranteed to have a good time stepping into the riveting, glittery world of Mackenzie!