MACBETH
The Best Production Posters
(“We but teach bloody instruction…”)
“And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths”
Graphic artists, like authors, have to capture the
tone and mood of a production. They must choose
their tools to convey the apt message.
Task
How do the various production
posters seek to capture the mood
or tone of the play?
"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the
stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Note the grotesque
configuration of the
crown and the top of
the skull.
 What effect is
achieved by the
suggestion of an
abyss inside the
head?

"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which
o'erleaps itself, and falls on the other."
The castle surrounds
the face, blinding it.
 Why would the mouth
be left uncovered?

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent
under 't."
I like the shading and
the use of color.
 What is suggested by
the contrast between
the bloody moon and
the shadowy trees?

"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown
me"
Note the jagged,
almost geometric
shapes.
 What do the three
shapes suggest and
how are they
connected?

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand
will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red"
Note the story that is
told when the eyes
follow the path of the
picture.
 How does color
enhance the effect?

"There 's daggers in men's smiles".
This is from a version
of Macbeth set in
Africa.
 Where do the objects
focus attention on the
picture?

“How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!”
Again with the skull
and crown thingy,
only spookier this
time.
 Anything here
suggest the
relationship between
death and the crown?

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair".
Note again the skull,
but a more complex
image.
 What makes this
imagery more
grotesque?

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this
way comes . . ."
Note how the image
is subtly complex.
 How many separate
identifiable objects
actually form this
picture?

“What are these, So withered, and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th' inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on 't?”
Grotesque imagery
and color contrast
add to the
efectiveness here.
 What makes the
image frightening or
disturbing?

“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”
Look
carefully at
this
deceptively
simple
picture.
 What detail
hints at the
setting of the
play?

“What's done cannot be undone.”


Again, angles,
geometric
shapes, the
symbols of
royalty, and
color contrast.
What is the
overall
suggestion of
mood here?
“Now o'er the one half-world
Nature seems dead.”
Though seemingly
familiar, this poster is
also strikingly original.
 How is this like and
unlike the previous
images?

Final Thoughts

The similarity of the imagery from poster to poster hints at the
content of the play.
 Royalty
 Death
 Blood
 Knives
 Faulty
logic
 Perversion of Nature
 Twisted humanity