William Shakespeare may be the most-produced playwright in America, but his enduring legacy comes at a cost: His works are endlessly tinkered with — contemporized, recontextualized and remixed.

In recent seasons, Valley theatergoers have been witness to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” set in a 1950s high school, a Gold Rush “The Comedy of Errors,” a hillbilly “Twelfth Night” and a “Henry V” in a desert during wartime, to name but a few.

Whether the adaptations worked, mind you, is another story. The ratio of triumph to turkey is balanced in favor of theater most fowl.

The jury’s still out — even among cast member — on Arizona Theatre Company’s big-budget “Macbeth,” which finished a run in Tucson to mixed reviews and opens Thursday in the Valley.

Reimagined by internationally renowned director Stephen Wrentmore, Shakespeare’s story of an unscrupulously ambitious Scottish couple’s bloody grab for the throne takes a time machine trip to the 1930s, where the tale takes a facist tone.

The engaging production is accented by a bold set design — Scott
Weldin’s creation resembles a broken sword — and heavy use of video projected onto stage.

Some cast members wonder if it isn’t too much. But they’re nevertheless pleased with the show’s impact on audiences.

“I think it’s fine to use modern clothes. The particulars of history aren’t as important,” says Matt Loney, who plays the leading role. “But I don’t like using video. It’s distracting.”

Loney and his fellow actors in “Macbeth” have experienced more than their fair share of Shakespearean tinkerings. Valley actress Maren Maclean, who plays one of three media-savvy witches in this production, and Richard Trujillo, who plays Macduff, played in Southwest Shakespeare Company’s Yukon “Errors” in 2003.

This Lady Macbeth, Celeste Ciulla, recalls doing a curious Macbeth” that ended in a fight scene with football-style shoulder pads.

“It doesn’t matter how we’re dressed or where we’re standing,” Cuilla says, “as long as the story is told clearly.”

Trouble is, the cast admits, finding out whether a Shakespearean adaptation works more often than not requires mounting a production.

“It’s something Michael Santo (Duncan in ‘Macbeth’) said to me: ‘Very seldom do you have perfect theater,’” Trujillo says. “We keep chasing that. We keep trying to approach perfect theater. But to get to that, you have to get through a lot of bad.”