We’re no strangers to rooting for the bad guy — after all, we’re living in the golden age of television antiheroes. Yet there wouldn’t be a Walter White or Frank Underwood if not for William Shakespeare’s bloody-handed Scotsman, Macbeth. Tonight, this university’s The Maryland Shakespeare Players will bring his story of magic, blood and loss of life into an intimate performance of “the Scottish play.”

Director Ben Kleymeyer, a sophomore theatre major, emphasized that with the small budget of a college group and the Players’ usual sparse settings, the magical, almost-horror story aspects of Macbeth have to be toned down. In their place is a moving character study of two of the most intriguing characters in English literature — Macbeth and Lady Macbeth — played by senior theatre majors Neel Madan and Mary Rose Winnard.

“We tried to make it … more of a story about loss: the loss of sanity, power and ultimately loss of life,” Kleymeyer said.

This is a group of performers, regardless of major, who just love acting. Sometimes people new to Shakespeare expect it to be self-serious, but the fun of The Maryland Shakespeare Players is infectious, even as the play itself tackles the lower depths of humanity.

“Half of our members are theatre majors, but The Maryland Shakespeare Players is open to anyone of any major in the university,” Kleymeyer said. “We let anyone be a part of theatre.”

Something wicked this way comes

This production is on a thrust stage — the audience sits on three sides of the stage and becomes part of the play, in a way.

“By making the audience another character in the show, it really throws them into the story and shows them the fear,” Kleymeyer said.

Characters make eye contact with audience members as they stride across stage, seek audience members to sympathize with their plights and even consider the audience to be characters.

“I spend all of the show talking to people in the audience,” Madan said. “We wanted to try to capture what Shakespeare’s company would have done.”

Lady Macbeth even took my hands and asked me to help her wipe the blood off in Wednesday’s dress rehearsal.

“It’s a much more naturalistic way of approaching [performing],” Winnard said of the thrust stage.

You can’t help but feel as though you’re co-conspiring with these people, as Madan’s Macbeth is quite sympathetic at the beginning, and Winnard’s Lady Macbeth honestly seems as though she wants what’s best for her husband … even if it’s just a bit immoral.

Double, double toil and trouble

Shakespeare remains beloved in part because of his works’ ability to be re-interpreted without even changing any lines. The witches — obviously having the most fun of all as they shriek and prowl about the stage — play Macbeth’s servants, suggesting he’s brought them along with him as he’s descended further into darkness. Scenes flow into one another instead of pausing for curtains to close — a detail Kleymeyer says adds to the dreamlike nature of the production. Keep an eye out for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s shifting wardrobe, symbolizing their own shifting and churning minds.

Madan said he’s tried to immerse himself in Macbeth’s character, drawing from his foresight of the character’s evil deeds to make Macbeth start off likable before quickly sinking into darkness.

“It really helps me bring out the brutality in the last chunk of the play, which comes through really well when I’m covered in blood,” Madan said.

Winnard said she has similar thoughts on the daunting task of playing a famous villainess.

“It’s been a challenge of balancing evil but real,” she said.

The Maryland Shakespeare Players perform Macbeth tonight at 8 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. All shows are in the Atrium in Stamp Student Union.