When it came to staging Macbeth, director Steen didn't want funny witches - he wanted scary ones.

A longtime fan of Shakespeare's play, Steen has seen more than a few versions. But when he decided to stage a version for Phoenix Theatre, he wanted to make sure the witches were done his way.

"One of the things we've done, which is an interesting take, is we've actually made the witches evil," Steen says.

"A lot of people tend to poke fun at them. We've never understood why people make them funny or do stupid things with them. I've seen them played as bag ladies, as men dressed as nuns. That might be someone else's interpretation and that's fine, but I want witches. I want spell-casting witches."

One of Shakespeare's classics, the play focuses on Macbeth's thirst for power after a trio of witches tell of a prophecy that he will be King of Scotland.

Rather than wait, and spurred on by Lady Macbeth, he murders King Duncan and takes the throne.

Steen says he's not one for tinkering with plays and changing their words. Rather, he looks for interpretations within the play that can be drawn out, without changing the words.

One of these interpretations features in the play - the idea that perhaps Lady Macbeth is more involved in the death of Duncan than it may appear.

"Our take on Lady Macbeth being involved, there's a speech of hers in act one where all of a sudden she finds out Duncan is on his way to the castle and she casts a spell," Steen says.

"Why would she suddenly go 'oh the king's coming, let's kill him'? It's never really sat well with me.

"We came up with the idea at rehearsal that this was always part of the plan.

"If the witches spoke to Macbeth maybe they spoke to her too."

Steen was first exposed to Macbeth more than 30 years agthand it has been an ongoing source of fascination for him.

"I found it when I was in primary school," he says.

"My grandmother gave me a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare and I just loved it.

"I've been reading Macbeth, researching it, I've directed it three times before, I've been in it four or five times.

"It's one of those plays I adore, its word play and its language is so rich. It is my favourite of his plays. I've also gone in and researched it - it was my research project when I was at uni."

While he thought this latest effort at directing Macbeth might be his last, Steen is already thinking about what he might do next time around.

"It still throws completely new things at me every time," he says.