Sara Wiseman’s new role has been 30 years in the making
Sunday, 19 July 2026
As Sara Wiseman steps into her ‘plum’ role as Lady Macbeth, she tells Felicity Monk about ambition, identity and the all-consuming nature of performance.
Sara Wiseman is fresh out of a 10-day silent retreat. Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is an ancient Buddhist meditation technique, but the modern-day courses, like the one Wiseman just completed in Kaukapakapa, north of Auckland, are secular in nature. Not for the fainthearted, it requires 4am starts, simple vegetarian meals, hours and hours of sitting still and the observation of Noble Silence – any form of communication with fellow students; gestures, sign language, written notes, is not allowed – from the first day of the course through to the morning of the last day.
It was the actor’s fourth time doing the retreat. “It is life-changing stuff,” she says. (Wiseman loves a challenge – she thinks she might be the only person who’s done Outward Bound three times.) Vipassana is described as a process of mental purification through self-observation. And, reckons Wiseman, the perfect thing to do right before commencing rehearsals for Auckland Theatre Company’s (ATC) production of Macbeth, in which she is taking on the meaty role of Lady Macbeth.
“It’s such an iconic role. The name [Lady Macbeth] is so loaded on so many different levels. Such empowered actresses have played her, so I found that incredibly intimidating when I was first offered it. I’m not someone who is confident in Shakespeare – I don’t know if that came from high school with an English teacher that maybe wasn’t confident themselves in it – so I wasn’t inspired in the way that some people are by it. I felt quite distant from it, like a bit of an imposter. Knowing the level of focus and commitment that I wanted to put into this [Macbeth], I thought 10 days of sitting in Noble Silence [would help] me get back that kind of laser-sharp focus.”
She returned from the retreat and ensemble rehearsals began the very next day.
Macbeth, among Shakespeare’s most potent psychological tragedies, is the story of a once celebrated war hero who, spurred on by a poisoned prophecy and encouraged by his ruthless wife, murders the King to claim the throne. Increasingly paranoid and unravelled by guilt, the Macbeths’ moral collapse becomes a descent into madness and tyranny. “It’s a universal story,” says Wiseman. “And if you love Succession and you love Game of Thrones, then this is kind of the OG.”
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Landing the role of Lady Macbeth has, in some ways, been a long time coming for Wiseman. As part of her audition for Unitec’s School of Performing and Screen Arts, she performed one of Lady Macbeth’s infamous speeches and, in her own words, “completely butchered it”. (Though it can’t have been that bad because she was still accepted into the programme.) The following year, Unitec put on Macbeth, and while Wiseman tried out for Lady Macbeth, she was instead cast in the role of first witch. “I was gutted to have missed out on that chance.” Since then, she has seen Macbeth performed here and in Australia a number of times. “I kind of thought, damn it, that one’s passed me by. The plum role has been and gone.” Then last year, director Benjamin Kilby-Henson – who had worked with Wiseman in 2024 on ATC’s The Effect – asked her if she would be interested in playing Lady Macbeth for his upcoming ATC production. “Understatement,” she declares and laughs. “That was an extraordinary moment of, oh my goodness, I actually do get the chance to come full circle with it, which is really nice.”
For his part, Kilby-Henson says of Wiseman: “I just knew she was my Lady Macbeth. Sas is one of our most treasured actors, and the opportunity to really dive into the Lady Macbeth role – which is such a challenging role in that it isn't the longest or biggest in terms of stage time, but the actual latitude and depth is humongous – so you need someone who is intelligent and creative and really deep-thinking and feeling, and that’s everything that Sas brings to the process.”
Preparing for the role of Lady Macbeth has been a kind of reckoning for Wiseman. It has prompted her to think a lot about ambition and legacy. “Macbeth is off at war. Lady Macbeth is by herself, ruminating, needing something to anchor onto, because she has no legacy.” (The Macbeths had a child but lost it.) “She has nothing other than this idea of making her mark as a queen.”
Wiseman herself chose to never have children. And she says now, at 54, the repercussions of that decision are amplified in a way. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make, if I reflect back on it now,” she says. “There was never a bit of me that pined to have a child, but there’s a sense of a push/pull, of the what-ifs, imagining what they’d be like now. The idea of that imagined child, or children, versus the life that I chose, and the consequences of both, the pluses and minuses of that … For women, ambition can be a bit of a dirty word, but for men it’s all OK, and I’m making peace with the recognition that I’ve always been deeply ambitious. I have a niece and nephews, but there’s no-one coming through underneath me, and what does that look like as I move into my next stage of life? Especially now that I'm single [Wiseman’s marriage to fellow actor Craig Hall ended in 2023]. It’s a really interesting stage of life to be in.”
Wiseman is one of our country’s most prolific actors. Working across theatre, film and television – and collecting awards along the way – she’s in her fourth decade in the business. Best known in New Zealand for her roles in local dramas Mercy Peak, Under the Vines and One Lane Bridge, she’s also a familiar face in Australia where for seven seasons she played Carolyn Bligh in the wildly popular A Place to Call Home. She also appeared in Rake, High Country (season 2 is due out soon) and recently played Dar, the mother of the lead ape in Disney’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The casting brief said “don’t be too ape-y”, and clearly Wiseman nailed it as she was offered the role, without so much as a recall.
Becoming an actor was a slightly circuitous path for the Auckland-born and raised Wiseman, who grew up on a quarter-acre section in the suburb of Howick. After finishing high school she tried a few different study paths; she started an architecture degree but soon realised it wasn’t for her, next she studied sports and rec management, but that still wasn’t the right fit. So she went on her OE to Colorado where she worked and skied, and then onto LA where she taught swimming at a summer camp. Back in New Zealand for her sister’s wedding, she still felt unsure about her next move, so went to see a clairvoyant. All she can remember from the reading was that the clairvoyant said she could see her in film and on stage at a casino. “When she said that I was like what, like as a dancer?” Wiseman guffaws. “But I just ran with it.” She reckons it was the nudge she needed to apply to film school in Christchurch.
And despite the clairvoyant being somewhat prophetic – Wiseman has been on stage at SkyCity Casino twice; once for Cabaret and once for Ladies Night – she says she hasn’t been to see a clairvoyant since. “I find it’s a love-hate to know something about a future, which can shut things down or can either be exciting or disappointing … you’re not living in the present because you’re thinking about, will this come to pass or not? After doing Vipassana, it’s just actually trying to be in the fully present moment as it is. Easier said than done, for sure.”
With bases in both Sydney and Auckland, Wiseman bounces between the two, depending on work commitments. When she’s in Auckland, she continues to teach at The Actors’ Program, a respected drama school she co-founded in 2012, along with Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Michael Hurst, Michele Hine, John Callen, Cameron Rhodes and Charlie McDermott.
Life looks a little different since the end of her marriage with Hall. Wiseman says she’s dabbled in dating and met some lovely people, but she’s not wanting to force anything. “I wanted to make sure that I didn’t throw myself into something else after divorce, I just needed to be on my own for a bit and work out who the hell that person was. And so that’s what I’ve done.” But in any case, dating is on the back burner while she channels Lady Macbeth. “This is all-consuming and because Lady Macbeth is so isolated and alone, I’m just sort of marinating in that. Having all that space really has been helpful.”
There’s a wee ritual Wiseman performs each night before taking the stage. “I always enter from backstage onto the stage and greet the space, because it’s such a sacred space. And every night is never to be repeated, it will never happen again, because that configuration of people will never be together again.” Once she has warmed up, she goes out into the theatre and touches every seat. “To acknowledge every person that sits in that seat for the night, I guess it’s a way of greeting them. And so when I do – especially with this play because we break the fourth wall and go into soliloquies – and have the conversation with the audience, it’s going to be really important for feeling confident about reaching across that space to them, whichever seat they’re in. If they’re sitting there, I’ve acknowledged them: thanks very much for coming and being a part of the adventure.”
Macbeth, presented by Auckland Theatre Company, runs from July 28-August 22 at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. atc.co.nz