bell shakespeare macbeth vce theatre studies education ...€¦ · online resources macbeth vce...

ONLINE RESOURCES MACBETH VCE Theatre Studies Education Resources written by Meg Upton, Arts-in-Sync © Bell Shakespeare 2014, unless otherwise indicated. Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used, reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.

BELL SHAKESPEARE MACBETH – VCE Theatre Studies Education Resource This resource is for VCE Theatre Studies students who have selected Macbeth as their Unit 4 performance for study. The resource is designed to complement the rich resources already created by Bell Shakespeare Learning but recognises that Victorian students bring a particular focus on the performed work.

Macbeth for a 21st century audience It is an adaptation (like every production) – the script is a blueprint and needs to be interpreted on stage… The script that we have is already a truncated play. There were no quarto editions published during Shakespeare’s lifetime. Macbeth only came to light in the First Folio of 1623, 7 years after he died. So we have an echo or a resonance of the original full play that he perhaps wrote… the performers wear contemporary costumes and I have envisaged that they are young, at the start of their careers, are not cynical or jaded or bitter, but quite optimistic. – James Evans, Director (full interview below). Shakespeare’s play, ‘Macbeth’, is said to be cursed. Instead actors and theatre workers refer to it as ‘The Scottish Play’. Superstition has it that if someone says ‘Macbeth’ by accident they have to reverse the curse. One tradition holds that the actor who utters ‘Macbeth’ must leave the theatre building, turn around three times on the spot, spit, swear, and then knock to be allowed back in. Good luck with that one at Arts Centre Melbourne…

CONTENTS Background to the Play………………………………………………………………………..…2-4

Interview with Director, James Evans………………………………………………………….5-7 Theatre Studies – discussion, analysis and evaluation

Structure, Narrative and Plot……………………………………………………………...8 The World of the Play……………………………………………………………………8-9 Theatrical Styles………………………………………………………………………..9-10 Characterisation……………………………………………………………………….10-11 Language………………………………………………………………………………11-12 Status………………………………………………………………………………………12 Motivations…………………………………………………………………………….12-13 Direction and Use of Space……………………………………………………….….13-14 Actor/Audience Relationship……………………………………………………………..14 Use of stagecraft - including set, costume, properties and sound………….…….14-16 Themes…………………………………………………………………………………….16 How does this production of Macbeth inform your Stagecraft Examination?.............17


BACKGROUND TO THE PLAY If you’ve found your way to this page you may have by-passed some key resources, ones that could be oh-so-helpful in your studies of the performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Curious? Click back and discover: Synopsis Background to the Play Key character profiles Thematic concerns Pre-performance activities Post-performance activities Live-streamed Q&A with the cast and director, James Evans

#MacbethExperiment Bell Shakespeare has thrown open the doors to the rehearsal room for exclusive behind-the-scenes access via social media to start online dialogue with students across Australia around the dilemmas of Macbeth. To participate in the #MacbethExperiment, simply go to The Players' Facebook page, follow The Players' Instagram and follow the characters on Twitter: #MacbethExperiment Macbeth @Great_Glamis Lady Macbeth @PartnrOfGr8ness The Witches @3_WeirdSisters

What you already know… Let’s hazard a guess that many of you have studied a Shakespearean play, possibly in English or Literature, and many of you may have performed in a Shakespearean play. So bring this valuable knowledge with you as you plunge into the study of this production. Ask yourself:

What do I already know about Shakespeare as a playwright – his plays, his life?

What was Elizabethan Theatre – its performance conventions, staging, theatre spaces?

What types of costuming did Elizabethan performers wear?

Where did the audience sit/stand?

What is iambic pentameter? What is metre? What is blank verse?

During Shakespeare’s time what was the political relationship between England and Scotland?

In Shakespeare’s time how did a nobleman/woman traditionally rise to become a monarch?

Was Elizabethan England a Christian society? Could this be important contextually?

What is superstition? What superstitions are you aware of or believe in?

Before a time of scientific knowledge what role may superstition have played?

What are supernatural forces and how might they link to superstition or even religion?

What is tragedy? What are the literary or theatrical conventions of a tragedy?

What is a ‘tragedy’ in contemporary Australian society? Have we redefined it?

https://www.facebook.com/ThePlayersBellShakespeare

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Characters listed in a ‘traditional’ production As this production of Macbeth is an adaptation you may find it useful to consider the full list of characters that appear in many productions of the play. There are over 30 named characters! Duncan, King of Scotland Malcolm, son of Duncan Donalbain, brother to Malcolm Macbeth Banquo Macduff Lennox Noblemen of Scotland Ross Menteith Angus Caithness Fleance, son to Banquo Siward, General of the English Forces Young Siward, his son Seyton, officer attending Macbeth

Son to Macduff An English Doctor A Scottish Doctor A Porter An Old Man Three Murderers Lady Macbeth Lady Macduff A Gentlewoman attending Lady Macbeth Hecate Three witches Three apparitions Lords, officers, soldiers, attendants and messengers

(From Signet Classic edition 1963) In this production Bell Shakespeare have gathered an ensemble of eight players to interpret Macbeth to the stage. In Shakespeare’s time, the actors were known as ‘players’, so it seems a fitting title to give to the eight performers of this production! Characters in Bell Shakespeare’s 2014 production Macbeth Player - Jack Lady Macbeth Player - Eloise Macduff/Duncan Player - Felix Banquo/Bleeding Captain/Doctor/Murderer Player - Rowan Malcolm Player - David Witch1/Lady Macduff/Lennox Player - Shauntelle Witch 2/Ross/Murderer Player - Stacey Witch3/Boy/Fleance/Lord/Seyton Player - Jane (The Players take on other roles as needed eg apparitions, murderers) With some exceptions, the players have multiple roles. As Outcome 3 has a strong focus on acting and performance, this is a great opportunity to consider how the performers play multiple roles and flex their vocal and physical skills to convey each one. Creative team Director James Evans Designer Mel Page Lighting Designer Nicholas Rayment Composer & Sound Designer Nate Edmondson Movement Director Scott Witt


A VISUAL OVERVIEW OF WHO’S WHO IN MACBETH

Images source: http://robotteeth.wordpress.com/macbeth/macbeth-characters/

http://robotteeth.wordpress.com/macbeth/macbeth-characters/


INTERVIEW WITH JAMES EVANS, DIRECTOR OF BELL SHAKESPEARE’S

MACBETH, 2014

What has been your approach to adapting Macbeth for the stage? It is an adaptation (like every production) – the script is a blueprint and needs to be interpreted on stage. There is one specific constraint on this production in that I have been given a ninety minute boundary! There are some logistical reasons for that, to do with our school audiences and the actors’ working hours. The adaptation of the text starts with that premise. But sometimes I find those things interesting – a restraint can make you be more creative. How do you make choices about what to leave out? If you run it all it will run about 2 hours and 15. We are losing about 45 minutes of the script. For instance, the scenes with Hecate (Middleton’s additions after Shakespeare’s death). The script that we have is already a truncated play. There were no quarto editions published during Shakespeare’s lifetime. Macbeth only came to light in the First Folio of 1623, 7 years after he died. So we have an echo or a resonance of the original full play that he perhaps wrote. Fascinatingly, in the banquet scene with Banquo’s ghost, Lady Macbeth says, ‘This is the very painting of your fear, this is the air drawn dagger that led you to Duncan’ (so she knows about it – was there another scene after the murder where he tells her about seeing the imaginary dagger?) Shakespeare himself edited and cut his plays quite heavily for performance. So the idea that we have to do the full text as written is a fallacy. We don’t know what the original performances were. Does it impact on the intended meaning? Macbeth can be more about politics or more about relationships, and I have chosen to focus on the latter. The Macbeths are a couple that are successful and happy and therefore one of the tragedies of the play is the breakdown in communication, fall apart and parted by death. So it is the destruction of their relationship that is central. They strive for something that they really want but when they get it, it is ‘hollow’. What did I do all that for? I.e. tomorrow and tomorrow – the nihilistic Shakespeare. A reflection on power and how it corrupts people. Shakespeare would have faced the same constraints as contemporary theatre directors do; the impact of audience, time, weather, politics etc. So, there are two ways to cut – chip away at each scene and trim those back or you can take out entire scenes. I have mostly done the latter because I think the extended images work well. So I have chopped out the murderers being present with Macbeth, suggesting that they are already there ready to kill Banquo. We have lost the Doctor and the Gentlewoman, so the sleepwalking scene becomes almost a soliloquy which becomes just a series of images that Lady Macbeth describes that I hope are quite chilling What is the context for this version of Macbeth? I don’t like to impose a world on the play. I like it to speak for itself. Apart from the fact that the performers wear contemporary costumes and I have envisaged that they are young, at the start of their careers, are not cynical or jaded or bitter, but quite optimistic. So it becomes a play about the thresholds that you cross. Macbeth crosses one and then another…a series of points of no return. So context is a tricky one because I don’t want to pin it down. In my head too much imposition clutters the play and text. Dropping a world on the play and making the play serves that world is counter-productive. Lady Macbeth – ‘My dearest partner of greatness’ – is a giveaway. She and Macbeth are equals and they know each other really well, these are the characters you can have the most impact on. I


wouldn’t say she starts as an evil character but I think she has a very strong ambition for herself and her husband. As soon as the murder occurs, Macbeth feels instantly guilty, but her guilt is a slow burn. Initially he is more swayed and led but in crossing the first threshold, something in him dies and he goes on that trajectory toward becoming a tyrant. She realises she wasn’t as tough as she thought she was. In my production, after that first scene they won’t even touch each other anymore. They will be very separate. And that is her lifeline and once he is ‘gone’, she loses her will to live. What does Shakespeare demand of his performers? The language is incredibly muscular. Fortunately for me the actors have been out on the road doing shows in schools for four months already so they are ‘match fit’. Often actors come to a play very raw. But my guys are ready to go and have had every sort of audience you can imagine. It is heightened language, 95 percent is poetry. It is not naturalistic. In Shakespeare’s time, of course no one spoke in iambic pentameter in everyday life. The language was considered poetic and heightened even back then. So the actors have to rise to meet the height of the language and the gigantic images. Lennox’s speech about that terrible night of Duncan’s death and its images. Using the language to its maximum effect. You need to attack the language with the huge high stakes that it demands. The actors are doing ten shows a week in front of demanding audiences – much more like a Shakespearean audience. Is there a design for the show? The set design is very simple for a number of reasons. I want to expose the bones of theatre making. Shakespeare never pretended it was realistic or natural. His actors would speak directly to the audience. So we will have a blank open space, not mask the walls of the theatre. We will have the costumes and props on stage ready to go. They will go to the costume rack and get it. When the actors need blood on their hands they will apply it with a bottle in view of the audience before coming on. A light grey slate coloured floor to transform the space and to show up all the blood. In Melbourne we will have a 100 exposed light bulbs hanging in the space in five rows. To integrate the lighting and the set into a surreal otherworldly environment. Sound design? I have a sound designer/composer, Nate Edmondson, and his music will play a big part in the show. This will reflect the emotional undercurrent of the play. I like a present sound track to help support the performance. Costumes? Contemporary, dark suits, casual clothes for the young lords, a feel of young wealthy privilege – the young royals for instance. I was inspired by the music from LORDE ‘Royals’, but she talks about excess and materialism – some of that will be on display to highlight the grab for status and power. You sit there in your trappings of wealth but what did it really cost you? The character of Malcom will be dialled up. I want to make him a privileged and entitled kind of character who doesn’t do any of the hard work and to add fuel to Macbeth’s motivations. What about the Theatrical Styles? I would describe it as abstract and surreal, it is an exposed style, open and this will be evident in the wide sprawling space of the Playhouse and all the trappings of the theatre will be used. The alienation from imagining we are watching a naturalistic world, breaking down the fourth wall, direct


engagement with the audience. But this all comes from the text and from Shakespeare himself. When I watch ‘realistic’ versions of Shakespeare they feel like museum pieces. I want this to be much more visceral and engaging as a theatre experience.


THEATRE STUDIES - DISCUSSION, ANALYSIS, AND EVALUATION As a student of Theatre Studies you need to approach this production of Macbeth with a particular focus. The description of the Area of Study is as follows: VCE THEATRE STUDIES UNIT 4: Performance Interpretation AREA OF STUDY 3, Outcome 3 - Performance analysis In this area of study students focus on the analysis and evaluation of the acting and design in a production selected from the prescribed VCE Theatre Studies Unit 4 Playlist. They analyse and evaluate how actor/s interpret the playscript in the performance and the relationship between acting, direction and design. In doing so students:

Study the character/s in the play and how the actor/s interpreted them on stage

Develop an understanding of the expressive skills used by the actor/s to portray the character/s, including facial expression, voice, gesture, movement, stillness and silence.

Develop an understanding of other aspects of acting and direction, including focus, the use of the acting space, the use of verbal and non-verbal language to convey the intended meanings of the play, the use of stagecraft by the actor/s in the production, and the establishment and maintenance of the actor–audience relationship.

Study the interrelationships between the acting and the theatrical style/s utilised in the production.

Refine their understanding of the terminology and expressions associated with analysing theatrical productions.

Students’ understanding of the techniques being used by the actor/s is informed by techniques they use to perform the monologue they selected for Outcome 1. [VCAA Theatre Studies Study Design, 2014, p27]

Structure, Narrative and Plot The Macbeths are a couple that are successful and happy and therefore one of the tragedies of the play is the breakdown in communication, they fall apart and are parted by death. So it is the destruction of their relationship that is central – James Evans, Director Discuss the structure and the main plot of this production.

Does the director’s comment suggest that the play is linear or non-linear?

Do events happen in sequence? If not, how do they unfold?

At what point do we, the audience, enter the story?

At what point do we leave the story?

Who tells the story? Are there other stories within this play? Whose are they?

How would you describe the language of the play - descriptive, conversational, heightened, perhaps poetic?

The World of the Play The world of the play is all those elements that combine to enable us to engage with the characters and the story – the physical objects, the sound, the light, the suggested era and time, the location, the relationships etc. We may not be able to locate it exactly but as a world, of its own, we accept it. What is the world that is presented to us in Macbeth? Director, James Evans, has some insights to offer:


Macbeth can be more about politics or more about relationships, and I have chosen to focus on the latter

Discuss how relationships between characters are foregrounded in this production?

Were you aware of the politics? Did it impact on the relationships? Apart from the fact that the performers wear contemporary costumes and I have envisaged that they are young, at the start of their careers, are not cynical or jaded or bitter, but quite optimistic. So it becomes a play about the thresholds that you cross.

How were the elements of youth, beginnings and optimism made apparent in the world of the play?

Dropping a world on the play and making the play serve that world is counter-productive

Discuss what the director may mean here

Consider the world presented. Does it remind you of a particular time or place?

If not, what statement do you think the director is making about the play?

Shakespeare set his play in Scotland and drew his characters from historical chronicles.

Does this production reference Scotland in any way?

Has it been ‘recontextualised’ and if so, to what period and time?

Does the use of SWORDS impact on creating a particular world?

What other choices could be made with regard to weapons?

Consider the status of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth and the stakes that are present for them in the story. Who could these characters be in a 21st century context?

In Melbourne there will be a 100 exposed light bulbs hanging in the space in five rows. To integrate the lighting and the set into a surreal otherworldly environment

Analyse and evaluate the impact of the light bulbs in the creation of Macbeth’s world.

Do you agree that Macbeth’s world was ‘surreal’ or ‘otherworldly’?

Theatrical Styles Shakespeare wrote for the Elizabethan stage and his plays were performed using some commonly recognised conventions – clear vocal articulation, disciplined delivery of language, slightly elevated use of movement and gesture, presentational delivery especially in soliloquy, young men playing female roles, time/place/off stage action written into the text. Arguably, it is the language and its structure, as well as the exploration of complex and enduring ideas that are captured in contemporary productions. Director, James Evans, provides a rich vision for this interpretation. In his interview he talks about the production having aspects of: abstraction, the surreal, exposure, alienation, a breaking down of the fourth wall, a sense of the visceral.

Discuss each of these descriptions in some detail and consider how they were evident in the production

Which aspects reference conventions of Elizabethan Theatre and of Shakespeare’s writing?

Which aspects do you feel reference conventions of more contemporary theatre practitioners and writers – Brecht, Artaud, Grotowski, Miller, Williams, Albee, Hewitt?


Macbeth is considered one of Shakespeare’s great tragic plays.

What are some recognised conventions of dramatic tragedy?

Consider the Greek unities of place, time and action.

What are the ‘stakes’ for the key characters in a tragedy?

What does each character stand to lose or to gain in Macbeth?

Does tragedy foreground that an audience may have particular sympathy or empathy for certain characters?

Analyse and evaluate how this production explored the tragic style The Players who create the roles of The Witches talk about the ‘ritualistic’ elements within the production.

Discuss the use of ritual elements in the performance

How were these conveyed? Visually, physically, using stagecraft?

Analyse how the ritualistic elements contributed to the theatrical styles within the production. The show is quite stylized. The fight scene is quite surprising in that way. We freeze frame and jump in and out of different bits of action. Scenes have been condensed and pushed forward – Player, David, who plays Malcolm

What does ‘stylized’ mean?

Discuss which aspects of the performance you feel were ‘stylized’.

How did freeze frames contribute to a sense of stylization?

Analyse and evaluate conventions within the production that were ‘non-naturalistic’.

Characterisation This production of Macbeth uses an ensemble of players in order to create a range of characters within the narrative. Player, David commented in the streamed post show Q&A that, We have a cast of eight so there is some condensing of characters, some are left out and others are merged. The character of Malcolm (Duncan’s son), uses some of the Porter’s texts. Consider the two key characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, in this production. These characters are portrayed by the players, Jack and Eloise.

Create a detailed character profile for them – including their relationship to other key characters, how they are spoken about, how they interact with each other

What characteristics does each character have? Are they ambitious, generous, envious, loving, conspiratorial, loyal etc?

Analyse and evaluate the performers use of expressive skills – voice, movement, gesture, facial expression, use of space

Consider key scenes. For example, Lady Macbeth urging Macbeth on, the murder of Duncan, Duncan bestowing knighthood on Macbeth, Macbeth encountering the witches, Lady Macbeth washing the blood from her hands, Macbeth’s confrontation with Macduff

Carefully consider each performers’ use of non-verbal language and how we receive that.

Select particular scenes or moments when your gaze was drawn to characters who were still or non-verbal

Why was your gaze drawn to them? How did directorial decisions impact on this?


A number of the ‘players’ in this production perform multiple roles.

Banquo/Bleeding Captain/Doctor/Murderer are all played by Rowan

Witch/Murderer/Lord Ross are all play by Stacey

Analyse and evaluate how each of these performers created those characters

Consider the use of expressive skills that each performer brings to each role

How did they manipulate their voice?

How did they use different gestures or movement?

How did they relate differently to different characters?

How did they change character? Did the audience see this? Was it achieved off stage?

Discuss and evaluate the way the performers played different genders in the performance It can be argued that certain characters are ‘functional’ in Macbeth in that they represent particular ideas or themes.

Spend some time discussing the role of the Witches in the production

What ideas do they represent – prophecy, ambition, struggle, evil, influence, guilt, desire, other?

How are the witches characters portrayed – physically, vocally?

What types of witches are they? Are they familiar?

Analyse and evaluate the choices made with regard to using ANIMAL MASKS

Evaluate the performers expressive skills in conjuring up these characters The murderers are a necessary presence in the production

What is their function? What do they represent?

How are they portrayed – physically, vocally? Consider the ‘next generation’ of characters – Fleance and Malcolm – what do they represent in the greater story of succession and power? Gender and the playing of gender is worthy of some focus when analysing Shakespeare. In Elizabethan times, boys played the female roles. Beyond the main roles, how is gender played in this production?

Player, Shauntelle, talks about playing Lord Lennox. She states that, as a woman you find different nuances.

Player, Jane, plays Macduff’s child as a girl called ‘Penny’.

Discuss the choices that have been made here

Analyse and evaluate what impact if any they had on the intended meaning of Shakespeare’s play.

Language As discussed earlier, Shakespeare’s language is a key convention of Elizabethan Theatre and a clear reference to its time. Player Felix, who plays Duncan and Macduff, comments on his FB post that Shakespeare challenges the actor because his language is …so heightened, you have to meet the emotional states, commit to that moment and think on the line or it doesn’t look real or believable.

Discuss how language contributed to creating the world of the play


How did it create status and stakes?

How did it create tension and drama?

How did it impact on you as a member of the audience? You need to attack the language with the huge high stakes that it demands…the actors have to rise to meet the height of the language and the gigantic images – James Evans, Director

Did you journey with the characters on their emotional ride?

Analyse and evaluate how the performers used LANGUAGE to portray their character

How did the heightened language generate strong visual images ie of blood, of power, of despair, of resolve?

Status The narrative of Macbeth is ripe for exploring status. High born characters, power and ‘vaulting ambition’. There is a clear hierarchy between characters in the production because it concerns kings, noblemen and war. However, the director has focused the production on the personal relationships so it is useful to analyse how status works in this way. Consider the interactions between some of the key characters in the production.

In particular focus on the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

What is the status relationship between them before Duncan is murdered?

What is the status after Duncan is murdered?

What is the status closer to Lady Macbeth’s death

In my production, after that first scene they won’t even touch each other anymore – James Evans, Director.

Discuss and analyse how this directorial decision conveyed the status relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

How did the performers use their expressive skills – voice, gestures, focus, movement, stillness – to convey status and shifts in status?

Evaluate the effectiveness of these status plays – was the status within their relationship clear? Was it ambiguous?

Now consider the interactions between Banquo and Macbeth, Macbeth and Macduff, Macbeth and the Witches:

Analyse the status relationships between these characters at various points within the production

Banquo and Macbeth begin as friends, Macbeth and Macduff end as enemies – how are these relationships conveyed? How are the shifts indicated?

What is the relationship between Macbeth and the Witches? Who has higher status? Does it shift and change?

Motivations What does each character want and why? Some of the themes that the play explores are ambition and desire. Director, James Evans, says that the play is, a reflection on power and how it corrupts people.


Analyse how power acts as a motivation in the play

Analyse how corruption motivates particular characters

Initially [Macbeth] is more swayed and led but in crossing the first threshold, something in him dies and he goes on that trajectory toward becoming a tyrant – James Evans, director

Discuss this statement by the director

Analyse how Macbeth is ‘swayed’. What sways him? Why does he cross the threshold?

How are these motivations conveyed by the performer?

How are they made evident to us through the delivery of language, the use of movement, gesture, facial expression and other non-verbal language?

In one of the most famous scenes in Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to murder Duncan

What motivates Lady Macbeth?

How does the performer use expressive skills – voice, gesture, movement, stillness, facial expression and other non-verbal language to convince Macbeth?

After Duncan is murdered, what motivates Lady Macbeth’s actions?

Analyse and evaluate the strong shift between before and after Duncan’s death and how the performer conveyed these shifts.

Direction and Use of Space

Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse Sydney Opera House, Playhouse The production of Macbeth has been created for the Playhouse spaces at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne. These spaces are quite similar in design and function. In his interview for these resources, director James Evans, talks about exposing ‘the bones of theatre making’, that there will be ‘a blank open space’ that will ‘not mask the walls of the theatre’.

Discuss his description. Do you agree with it? What opportunities did these choices allow for?

How did the performers use this space? What exits and entrances exist?

Select some key moments or scenes – the murder of Duncan, the post murder scene between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, the first scene with the witches, the death of Lady Macbeth, the battle with Macduff ?

Analyse how the performing space was used in these particular scenes

Where was your focus or gaze drawn most often?

Evaluate the directorial decisions made with regard to space

Which characters used the downstage area most often?


Which characters were confined to particular areas of the stage?

How did the use of space reference the theatrical styles?

How did the use of space by the performers convey status? How did the direction reflect or contribute the theatrical styles in the production? How did the direction create dramatic tension? How did the direction heighten our attention to Shakespeare’s language?

Actor/Audience Relationship The director and the performers talk about this production and how it honours Shakespeare’s intentions with regard to the audience. The use of soliloquy is a powerful element of Shakespeare’s plays and it is designed to enable characters to address the audience, sometimes acknowledged and possibly made complicit in plans and schemes, and at others enrolled as receivers of confessions or inner thoughts. Shakespeare never pretended it was realistic or natural. His actors would speak directly to the audience – James Evans, director

Discuss moments when the performers spoke to the audience

Did you feel you were being directly addressed?

How did the performer/s use their expressive skills, space and timing to address you?

Performer, Rowan, commented on his FB post that there is really no fourth wall in the production; We see the audience at the beginning of the show. We are playing it as Shakespeare wrote it with soliloquies to the audience.

Discuss how the use of soliloquy created particular actor/audience relationships in the performance

Did you feel that you were looking in at the characters’ lives at any point?

If so, did this make it feel that there was a fourth wall?

Analyse the absence and/or presence of a fourth wall in the performance

There are movement sequences where we freeze the action and then characters step out of that moment to address the audience – Performer, Rowan

Consider how this convention referenced the theatrical styles that were present in the production

Did this convention feel ‘non-naturalistic’?

Use of stagecraft - including set, costume, properties and sound Set So we will have a blank open space, not mask the walls of the theatre. We will have the costumes and props on stage ready to go. They will go to the costume rack and get it. When the actors need blood on their hands they will apply it with a bottle in view of the audience before coming on - James Evans, director There are a number of stagecraft elements mentioned in this description – the blank open space, costumes on stage, use of props such as blood


Analyse how the set design created a sense of a blank open space

How did this design enable multiple locations to be created?

How did it enable the performers to use the space?

Director, James Evans, describes the aesthetic of the production as having ‘a feel of young wealthy privilege…excess and materialism’ and that ‘some of that will be on display to highlight the grab for status and power’

Discuss this description of the design aesthetic

What aspects of the design do you feel represented wealth or privilege?

What aspects of the design do you feel represented status and power?

Props Focus on the props used in the production

Make a list of the props

How were they ‘stored’ or how did the actors obtain them when required?

Were props transformed at all?

Which props ‘belonged’ to particular characters?

Discuss whether certain props became symbols or metaphors within the play. When and why?

Costume One of the Macbeth Players, Stacey, posted a short video on the FB page about the role of costume in creating character. She said: In playing the Witch – ‘I wear a sparkly black short skirted costume’. As the Murderer – ‘Really heavy boots that give me a certain weight which changes the way I move’. Lord Ross – ‘The formal trench coat which is a great hook and instantly feels very different and very corporate’

Analyse how each of these costumes enabled Stacey to play the different characters

Evaluate the design in terms of its effectiveness at reflecting the character in the world of the play

Focus on the costumes that were worn by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in this production

The director is aiming for a feeling of privilege. Analyse the costumes these two characters wore with the notion of ‘privilege’ in mind

As the narrative progressed, did their costumes change? Did costume link to motivation? Did it link to changing status?

Select two other characters from The Witches, Duncan, Lady Macduff, Malcolm, and Banquo

Analyse how costume enhanced the portrayal of the character in terms of age, status, and function.

What did you notice about make-up and hair in the production?

How did the convention of performers playing multiple characters allow for strong decisions about make-up and hair?


Sound This production of Macbeth has its own sound and composition design. The focus on an individual sound design suggest that it will be an integral part of the production. Director, James Evans, says: I have a sound designer/composer, Nate Edmondson (https://soundcloud.com/nate-edmondson) and his music will play a big part in the show. This will reflect the emotional undercurrent of the play. I like a present sound track to help support the performance

What do you recall about the sound and composition in the production?

Did the sound have a particular aesthetic?

How did sound contribute to the drama, tragedy, and mood?

Did the sound have a function ie to convey a shift in time and location?

Did particular sound choices relate to particular characters ie were motifs established?

Analyse and evaluate the choices made with regard to sound

Themes Some of the key themes explored in Macbeth are: Loyalty and trust, betrayal and deception, ambition, appearance and reality, sleep and death, blood, the supernatural, good and evil

Think back across your analysis and discussion of the world of the play, characterisation, direction, and design

How were these themes explored or represented through the elements and conventions of theatre and the chosen theatrical styles?

Did certain characters embody particular ideas or themes?

Analyse how Shakespeare’s language spoken aloud by the players conveyed the intended meaning of the play

https://soundcloud.com/nate-edmondson


How does this production of Macbeth inform your Stagecraft Examination? Consider the two monologues below by two of the key characters in the play.

Recall how they were staged in the production

What directorial decisions had been made?

What design and stagecraft decisions had been made?

If you were to present these as part of your stagecraft examination what aspects would you retain that reflect the overall vision for the work?

(Upon receiving Macbeth’s letter that he has been made Thane of Cawdor and that Duncan and his retinue will be shortly visiting) Lady Macbeth (Act I, Sc V) The raven itself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, no keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my mill for gall, your murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor the heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry ‘Hold, hold!’ (Upon receiving the knowledge that Lady Macbeth has died) Macbeth (Act V, Sc V) She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day Top the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his our upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing

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