Elgin Macbeth
National Theatre of Scotland
Atlantic Chambers
45 Hope Street
Glasgow
G2 6AE
0141 221 0970
1
PROLOGUE
The stage is set within the grounds of Elgin Cathedral. The porter opens the
gates and invites the audience in.
PORTER
You’ll be here for the play then. This way……oh there’s plenty of you,
nothing good on the telly? Come away in, we were expecting you, well
maybe no’ you….keep your eye on this one ! You’ll be switching your
mobiles off as well… regulations, like health and safety regulations……lots
of trip hazards mind your step,
He trips and rolls and straight back to his feet.
you need to mind yourself…..and your neighbour, and if anybodies needing
a seat or a brolly……I hope you’ve brought your own! Come away in.
Dinna dilly dally. Nae munchin your crisps young man. And you can forget
the buckie. Is that everybody ? Are we all in ? Great. If you havny guessed
yet I’m your porter.
He shakes his keys.
We’ll get started soon enough and you’ll no be long, I’ve a bed to go to and
I’m getting knocked up half way through the play…by knocked up I mean
somebody will be knocking me up…what I mean is…. my door will be
knocked upon and…..forget it, just digging a bigger hole amn’t I.
He indicates the Cathedral and opens the curtain at the arches. As they
audience pass by him……..
Elgin Cathedral, your playground for the night. In you go. Dinna be shy.
Have a wee wander. The weans have put a show on, you should see some of
the stuff they’ve got, the chapter house is something else. Then there’s the
main event. Off you go ! I’ve some reading to do. Oh ! and dinna gie the
beggars any cash ! They’ll fleece you rotten.
The audience are ushered through the main entrance. They are at once
confronted by a large gang of children standing in formation. They are
dressed in semi military rags, styled with insignia- Burghead bull, Celtic
circles and crosses, thick heavy belts, possibly some trashy earrings, rings,
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bracelets made from shoe lace, some have head dresses and there should be
some kind of system of uniform that denotes a hierarchy.
They hold small bouquets/button hole flowers. They are a vivid red colour
and very beautiful.
They stare and sing an eerie lament. We shouldn’t know what the words
mean, it should sound like a language but be a bit chaotic. The singing
stops.
The children are silent. A tension builds as they stare at the audience.
There is the sound of wind it builds to become like a swarming sound. It
builds in intensity, it becomes electrified sound and finally white noise that
is hard to listen to. It stops suddenly.
From the ramparts a woman calls them. They flee like rats, scurrying
through the audience, laughing and playful. As they scurry they separate the
audience in to four groups.
The community cast take over and guide the audience to the Chapter house,
The two towers and west graveyard.
The audience view the exhibitions.- the exhibitions are:- Chapter house will
be a whisper dome, The chapel- a banquet, The education room- harp and
photographs, the tower- a video “talking head” installation.
As they wander they should be conscious that they are being watched by the
children. Occasionally a child will approach them and give them one of the
red flowers. They should gesture for money, but never have enough time to
accept it if it is offered. It should be very intimate and conspiratorial for the
audience member. They should feel they have been given something precious
and that they owe the child somehow.
At a given moment a bell tolls. The audience are guided back to the centre of
the Cathedral.
Macbeth is on a podium.
The community cast walk around him and through the audience. The porter
reads his book at the foot of the podium.
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Visuals: The pages of Macbeth are flicked over rapidly this may be
projected on to him or the podium.
PORTER
It’s a good read. I kent o’ him, the real one…. well my faither kent o’ him.
Or was it my faithers great grand faithers great grand faither who actually
knew him? No matter. He’s no the man in these pages. Still you’ll find that
out for yourself. Seems this Wully Shakespeare’s read our chronicles. I
know he read they Holinshed ones but there’s older words fae they monks in
Fife. Black propaganda, all of it but hey….they tell a good tale the
chronicles…..so does Wully…. our stone, our kingdom, our scone, our
Birnam woods, the queen, the battles and a wee bitty invention and hey
presto……
Metaphors, analogies, allegory, blankened verse and iambic pentameter –
Clever stuff, but you do wonder…..who speaks like that?! I’m rabbitting, I
know ! It’s my stock and trade.
So here he is…..MacBeth
CHAPTER ONE – A CALL TO ARMS
Cast
Macbeth.
Cast
Son of Findlaich
Cast
Mormar of Moray
Cast
Macbeth the Father, Husband, King
Cast
Slayer of Duncan and the Norwayen Hoards
Cast
Macbeth the peacemaker..
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Cast
Reigned for seventeen years
Cast
Macbeth the enforcer…feared and respected.
Cast
Macbeth the Christian…..pilgrim to Rome
Cast
Giver to poor.
Cast
Hunter and Warrior…white knight
Cast
Descendent of Dalriada.
Cast
Son of Findlaich, descendent of Keneath Macalpine first King of all Scots
and Picts.
Cast
The red one, the fearsome, the golden haired.
Cast
Macbeth the inspiration.
Cast
The Gargoyles
Cast
The Berchin Prohecy
Cast
Wyntoun Chronicles
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Cast
Holinshed
Cast
Shakespeare’s Tragedy
Cast
Macbeth Son of the Devil
Cast
Macbeth the enlightened one
Cast
Macbais the damned
Porter
A Man or a myth ?
There was a battle.
SCENE ONE – THE BATTLE
A huge explosion resonates around the cathedral, shocking the audience .
A curtain of smoke rises and billows over the ground. It should be thick and
threatening.
Huge Taiko type drums are played aggressively from the twin towers and the
opposite end of the cathedral.
The smoke disappears and we see revealed two teams of warriors.
They perform a Hakka style dance before they charge each other.
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CHORUS, MUSIC AND VISUALS
Doubtful it stood as two spent swimmers that do cling together and choke
their art. The merciless Macdonald – worthy to be a rebel for that the
multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him – From the Western
Isles of Kerns and Gallowglasses, is supplied; and fortune, on his damned
quarrel smiling, showed like a rebels whore; But all’s too weak for brave
Macbeth – Well he deserves that name – Distaining fortune with his
brandished steal, which smoked with bloody execution, Like valors minion
carved out his passage till he faced the slave; which never shook hands, nor
bade farewell to him, till he unseemed him from the nave to the chops, And
fixed his head upon our battlements. But the norwayen lord, surveying
vantage with furbished arms and new supplies of men, began a fresh
assault…
But with dismay akin to that that sparrows, eagles or hare the lion make,
they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
Point against point, rebellious arm against arm, curbing his lavish spirit, and
to conclude the victory fell on us!!
They repeat “the victory fell on us” as they collapse and fall to the ground
dead. This happens randomly, sometimes one by one sometimes in twos or
threes.
The last body falls as the last drum beat echoes.
We hear the swarming sound. The children arrive and swarm all over the
corpses. They pick at the jewellery, take the belts and buckles, and take the
shoes from the dead and cut some muslin from the corpses shirt. The music
stops.
At once they all suddenly stop as if they have heard something. They turn to
the audience as if to help and warn them. They run to the audience and
guide them by whispering in their ears. It’s important that there is eye
contact after the whisper.
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CHILD
Round about the cauldron go.
CHILD
Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air.
CHILD
A drum a drum Macbeth doth come.
They create a whispered choral chaos that tells the audience about the
plight of their orphan status and encourage the audience to meet them with
the witches. It’s very conspiratorial. As the audience move to the
graveyard….
PORTER
It was a bloody time, battle of Lumphanan battle of Pentland Firth battle of
Pitgaveny. Duncan was a boy who led us through it, through tides of blood
that ebbed and flowed with the gravity of his greed. He had a thirst for it.
The Danes, the Saxons and the Norwayan fleets were all food for his
conceit. Shakespeare’s trick was to recognise we like our war’s to be spun
like a good yarn …...
The community cast emerge from under and behind gravestones. They intone
the chants the witches give. They create a choral cacophony. As they intone
they make a boiling mass from their bodies- the effect should be like a huge
single creature that has many heads and arms, legs and torsos, frothing and
bubbling, building to hysteria, until the drum.
Sound track – edgy ambience.
Visuals – broody sky, gathering storm.
Act One - Scene 3 (A heath)
Thunder. Enter the Three Witches. Masks on
FIRST WITCH
Where hast thou been, sister?
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SECOND WITCH
Killing swine.
THIRD WITCH
Sister, where thou?
FIRST WITCH
A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And mounched, and mounched.
“Give me,” quoth I.
“Aroint thee,◦witch!” the rump-fed ronyon◦ cries.
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’th’ Tiger:
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
SECOND WITCH
I’ll give thee a wind.
FIRST WITCH
Th’art kind.
THITD WITCH
And I another.
FIRST WITCH
I myself have all the other:
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know (laughing)
I’th’shipman’s card.◦
I’ll drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid;
He shall live a man forbid:
Weary sev’nights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
Look what I have.
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SECOND WITCH
Show me, show me.
FIRST WITCH
Here I have a pilot’s thumb,
Wracked as homeward he did come.
Drum within.
THIRD WITCH
Adrum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.
ALL
The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! The charm’s wound up.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo
MACBETH
So foul and fair a day I have not seen
BANQUO
How far is’t called to forres?
What are these so withered and so withered and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth, and yet are on’t? Live you or
are you aught that man may question.
MACBETH
Speak if you can: what are you?
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FRST WITCH
All Hail Macbeth! Hail to thee thane of Glamis.
SECOND WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee thane of Cawdor!
THRID WITCH
All Hail Macbeth, that shall be kings here after!
BANQUO
Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear. Things that do sound so fair? I’
the name o’ truth are you fantastical, or that indeed which outwardly you
show? My noble partner you greet with present grace and great prediction of
noble having and of Royal hope that he seems rapt withal: to me you speak
not.
If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and
which will not, speak then to me, who neither beg or fear your favours or
your hate.
FIRST WITCH
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater
SECOND WITCH
Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail Macbeth and Banquo
FIRST WITCH
Banquo and Macbeth all hail!
The witches disappear
MACBETH
Your children shall be kings
BANQUO
You shall be kings
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BANQUO
Who’s there
Enter Ross
ROSS
The King hath happily received, Macbeth, the news of thy success; and
when he reads thy personal venture in the rebels fight, his wonders and his
praises do contend, which should be thine, or his: silenc’d with that, in
viewing o’er the rest o’ th’ selfsame day, he finds thee in the stout Norweyan
ranks, nothing afeard of what thyself didst make strange images of death. As
thick as tale came post with post, and every one did bear thy praises in his
Kingdom’s great defence, and pour’d them down before him.
And for an earnest of a greater honour, he bade me, from him, call thee
Thane of Cawdor: in which addition, hail mostly worthy Thane for it is
thine.
BANQUO
What, can the Devil speak true?
MACBETH
The Thane of Cawdor lives, why do you dress me in borrowed robes?
ROSS
Who was the Thane, lives yet, but under heavy judgement, bears that life,
which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin’d with those of Norway,
or did line the rebel with hidden help, and vantage; I know not: but treasons
capital, confess’d, and prove’d, have overthrown him.
MACBETH
Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind. Thanks for your
pains. Do you not hope your children shall be Kings, when those that gave
the Thane of Cawdor to me, promis’d no less to them?
BANQUO
That trusted home, might yet enkindle you unto the Crown, besides the
Thane of Cawdor. But ‘tis strange: and oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the
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instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
in deepest consequence.
Cousin, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH
Two truths are told as happy prologues to the swelling act
of the imperial theme.
This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, Cannot be good. If ill
Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth ?
I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my
hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature.
Present fears are les than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder yet is fantastical is smothered in surmise and
nothing is but what is not.
BANQUO
Look how our partners rapt.
MACBETH
If chance would will have me king, why chance may crown me without my
stir. Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
BANQUO
Worthy Macbeth we stay upon your leisure.
MACBETH
Give me your favour. My dull brain was wrought with things forgotten. Let
us toward the king.
They exit. The porter remains and comments as he walks away with Banquo.
PORTER
Seventeen years he reigned. Gained his crown through birth right- born to
Dabda, descended from Keneath Macalpine and so carried the right to
succession. Malcolm, that’s Duncan’s dad, killed his father – cleared the
way for Duncan’s Reign, so it was no wonder there was a feud, no wonder
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he thought of murdering him. Now mind Duncan was a boy, but our bard
painted him as a “noble old soul” who’s virtues, were trumpet tongued.”
very bible, clever that, the way he uses the bible. Also very clever that he
never stuck to king Duncan being a boy- no dramatic tension if he’s
murdering a petulant boy. Not if he’s to murder sleep, have “amen” stick in
his throat, have him lament for innocence.
Our attention is seized by a child tugging at the porters shirt. The child
whispers and hands a red letter to the porter. Again the gesture for money.
PORTER
Away you go. Letter for the queen. Aye she was a queen, Gruoch was her
name. Macbeth was her second marriage to, arranged marriage. She had a
son- Lulach, wee bit dolly dimple. No mention of him, didny reign long
enough to merit a menshy- five month.. They all were in them days. Still I
bet you didny know she was a mother. All the more dramatic then to “fill her
full of direst cruelty.”
Examines letter.
No SWALK. Oh the temptation. Postie postie do your stuff take this to my
wee cream puff. Postie postie do not tarry take this to the girl I married.
Pass it on.
He passes the letter and encourages the audience to follow it. It guides the
audience to the East chapel. There is a huge long table and Lady Macbeth is
at one end of it, on her own. There is a chair at the other- thus emphasising
her loneliness. The letter arrives she opens and reads.
Sound – Lady Macbeth signature – metallic slicing noise. After signalling,
the castle is filled with echo ambience.
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Act 1, Scene V (Inverness. Macbeth’s castle.)
LADY MACBETH (READS)
“They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the
perfect’st report they have more in them than mortal
knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further.
they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I
stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives◦ from the King,
who all-hailed me’Thane of Cawdor’; by which title, before,
these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming
on of time, with ‘Hail, King that shalt be!” This have I thought
good to deliver thee,◦ my dearest partner of greatness, that thou
mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what
greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell”.
Glamis thou art, and Caedor, and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness◦ should attend it. What thou wouldst
highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst have,
great Glamis,
That which cries”Thus thou must do” if thou have
it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
And chastise with the valor of my tongue
All that impeses thee from the golden round
Which fate and metaphysical◦ aid doth seem
To have thee crowned withal.
Enter Messenger
What is your tidings?
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MESSENGER
The King comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH
Thou’rt mad to say it!
Is not thy master with him, who, were’t so,
Would have informed for preparation?
MESSENGER
So please you, it is true. Our thane is
coming.
One of my fellows had the speed of him,
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
LADY MACBETH
Give him tending;
He brings great news.
Exit Messenger.
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for all, you murd’ring 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 heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry”Hold, hold!”
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Enter Macbeth
Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
MACBETH
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH
And when goes hence?
MACBETH
Tomorrow, as he purposes.
LADY MACBETH
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
MACBETH
We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH
Only look up clear.
To alter favour ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.
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There is a loud trumpeted sound that announces the arrival of the king. The
king is a huge puppet and crown animated by the community cast who also
give him a voice. The king enters in procession and sits.
Scene vi. (Before Macbeth’s castle)
Hautboys and torches. Enter King (Duncan), Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo,
Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and Attendants.
KING
This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
Cast
This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his loved mansionry that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coin of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle.
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
The air is delicate.
.
Enter Lady (Macbeth)
KING
See, see, our honoured hostess!
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herin I teach you
How you shall bid God ‘ield us for your pains
And thank us for your trouble.
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LADY MACBETH
All our service
In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
Your Majesty loads our house: for those of old,
And the late dignities heaped up to them,
We rest your hermits.
KING
Where’s the Thane of Cawdor?
We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor: but he rides well,
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp
him
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest tonight.
LADY MACBETH
Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in
compt,
To make their audit at your Highness’ pleasure,
Still to return your own.
KING
Give me your hand.
Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess.
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Scene VII (Macbeth’s castle)
Hautboys. Torches. Enter a Sewer, and diverse Servants with dishes and
service over the stage, Then enter Macbeth.
MACBETH
If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well
It were done quickly. If th’ assassination could trammel up the
consequence, and catch, with his surcease, success, that but this blow
Might be the be-alland the end-all-here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgement here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th’ inventor: this even handed justice
Commends th’ ingredicents of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust;
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
With plead like angels trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked newborn babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’ other …..
Enter Lady (Macbeth)
How now! What news?
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LADY MACBETH
He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?
MACBETH
Hath he asked for me?
LADY MACBETH
Know you not he has?
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss
Not cast aside so soon
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk?
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valor
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would”,
Like the poor cat I’ th’adage?
MACBETH
Prithee, peace!
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none
LADY MACBETH
What beast was’t then
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were, you would
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Be so much more the man. Nor thime nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this
MACBETH
If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH
We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail.
MACBETH
Bring forth men children only, for thy undaunted mettle should compose
nothing but males.
They kiss.
A dozen women carry bed linen and make up the bed. Lady Macbeth
supervises and Macbeth watches as the bed is laid.
The cast animate the King in to bed. He sleeps. As this is happening the
Macbeths watch and Lady Macbeth speaks of her plot.
LADY MACBETH
When Duncan is asleep – where to the rather shall his days hard journey
soundly invites him – his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so
convince that memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume and the
receipt of reason a limbeck only: when in swinish sleep their drenched
natures lies as in death, what cannot you or I perform upon the unguarded
Duncan, what not upon his spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt of our
great quell.
MACBETH
Will it not be received, when we have marked with blood those sleepy two
of his own chamber, and used their very daggers, that they have done’t.
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LADY MACBETH
Who dares receive it other, as we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
upon his death.
MACBETH
I am settled and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away and mock the time with fairest show; False face must hide what the
false heart doth know.
Lady Macbeth exits
MACBETH
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch
thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight, or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ other senses,
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still;
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There’s no such thing.
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate’s offerings; and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
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And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he
lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
A bell rings
I go, and it is done: the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.
.
Duncan’s murder –
Sound – a pumping “smack my bitch up” type track ensues.
Visuals – Hacking of flesh and atrocity
The community cast lift the crown and cloak from the bed and throw buckets
of blood all over it. It drops and there behind it, is Macbeth, covered in
blood. He takes the crown. The cast carry the body from the scene.
Castle Night.
Sound: Edgy, with suspense, some silences or really deep frequency so it
hardly registers but is pushing the heart rate. Everything is whispered and
an echo should be added so the “s” sounds sound like the end of a ride
symbol disappearing into a dome.
Visuals: Deep pools of inky water rippling gently
LADY MACBETH
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace!
It is the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, which gives the
Stern’st good night. He is about it. The doors are open, and
The surfeited grooms do mock their charge with snores.
I have drugged their possets, that death and nature do contend
About them, whether they live or die.
Alack! I am afraid they have awaked, and ‘tis not done:
Th’ attempt and not the dead. Confounds us. Hark!
I laid their daggers ready He could not miss’em
Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.
24
Enter MACBETH. Covered in blood
MACBETH
I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?
MACBETH
When?
LADY MACBETH
Now
MACBETH
When I descended?
LADY MACBETH
Ay
MACBETH
Hark! Who lies in the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH
Donaldbain
MACBETH
This is a sorry sight.
LADY MACBETH
A foolish thing to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH
There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one did cry murder! That they did
wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers and
addressed them again to sleep.
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LADY MACBETH
There are two lodged together.
MACBETH
Once cried God Bless and “Amen” the other, as they seen me with these
hangman’s hands: Listening they their fear, I could not say “Amen” when
they did say “God Bless Us”.
LADY MACBETH
Consider it not so deeply
MACBETH
But wherefore could I not pronounce Amen? I had need of blessing, and
Amen stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH
These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so it will make us mad.
MACBETH
Methought I heard a voice cry “sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”
– the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, the death
of each days life, sore labour’s bath, balm of hurt minds, great natures
second course, chief nourisher in lifes feast.
LADY MACBETH
What do you mean?
MACBETH
Still it cried “sleep no more” to all the house: “Glamis hath murdered sleep,
and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more”
LADY MACBETH
You do unbend your noble strength, to think so brainsickly of things. Get
some water and wash filthy witness from your hands.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there: go
smear the sleepy grooms with blood.
MACBETH
I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done; look on’t again I dare
not.
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LADY MACBETH
Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead are but
as pictures. Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal for it must be their guilt.
Lady Macbeth exits.
Loud Knocking within.
MACBETH
Whence is that knocking? How is it with me, when every noise appalls?
What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes!
Will all the great neptunes ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No;
this my had will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine making the green
ones red.
Enter Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH
My Hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white. I hear a
knocking at the south entry. Retire we to our chamber a little water clears us
of this deed; How easy is it then! Your constancy hath left you unattended
(knock). Hark more knocking. Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us
and show us to be watchers. Be not lost so poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH
To know my deed t’were best not know myself (knock). Wake Duncan with
thy knocking! I wouldst thou couldst!
The Community Cast enter and mop up the blood. They lift the bloody sheet
and carry the figure of Duncan to the crypt where he was laid.
SCENE FIVE – THE PORTER SCENE
Enter a Porter. Knocking within.
27
PORTER
Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were a porter of hell-gate he should have
old turning the key. See you thought I was being all smutty when I said I
was being knocked up didn’t you. Shame on you. No This is the comic
interlude ! Traditionally you’d have the topical jokes and stuff going here,
like wae Shakespeare he was ridiculing the gunpowder plot and stuff, but
hey this is Elgin Macbeth, so we thought we’d tell you exactly who the Elgin
Macbeth was.
Here’s a farmer.
FARMER
You ken the river Lossie up past the showies, nae word o’ a lie here..once a
year, in spring, when there is a full moon....you can hear cries coming from
the river....at first you think its animals then you realise it is human
cries...childrens cries. It gets louder and louder and then there is this
almighty bang, like a thunder clap and the river rushes and rushes at great
speed. It drags small saplings and flowers and anything thats been lying
near the river with it....it flows and flows then SUDDENLY it stops! Dead!
and the great torrent comes to a halt. Its incredibly still....no birdsong, no
trees blowing...Silence! If then you Look into the water you will see its the
colour of blood. Thick and red and smelling of death. You know why ?
Hand on my heart this is the river where Macbeth washed his hands in after
killing Duncan .
CAST
Your beans ! Rubbish man.
PORTER
Here’s a quine…
QUINE
Course it’s rubbish. He was a faither, and he didny dee anybody that didny
deserve it. You ken his boys heids buried under Jean Carrs stane?
CAST
Yer arse !
QUINE.
It is so ! That’s why jean Carr was thocht to be a witch. That and biting the
ears aff the weans. I was telt that Macbeths boy’s heid is buried under her
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stane and if you try and lift it…….you’ll get the curse. Bunch oh boys tried
it last year wae a tractor and just as it was about to come free ….know what
they heard ?
CAST
The polis ?
QUINE
No ! Macbeth thundering in the clouds….”Let it be !”
LUNE
Oh aye and if you believe that you’ll believe the one about forres hill !
CAST
Whits that ?
LUNE
If three women go to the top of forres hill on the 28th august …that’s when
Macbeth supposedly died…and you’ve got a lock of a new borns hair. Three
of you mind. You say fair is foul and foul is fair three times and lie down to
look down the hill backwards….you’ll see who you’re gonny marry
breenging up the hill.
CAST
Dinna you be hingin about there noo peter !
PETER
Ach you’re all talking rot ! The only true account of the real Macbeth comes
fae the clavey king !
CAST
Dan….?
PETER
If it’s truth your efter ask him ! he was passing through Burghead and some
of the clavey boys came up to him and asked what he was efter.
”What you talking aboot” he says “I’m the king”
”there’s only one king round here said the boys.
”Is that so” says Macbeth. I’ll have his heid on the end o’ ma sword if he’s
29
callin himself King.
So the boys take him to the clavey and in he goes wae the sword drawn.
Two hours later…out he comes and the truth be told ! He bows to the
clavey!
QUINE
Aye and he sired twenty weans if he sneezed !
LUNE
And he was seven foot four !
FARMER
And he spat pure acid on his enemies !
PORTER
It’s all myth. But like I said we like a good yarn.
We hear the Os motorum chant from the chapter house.
PORTER
What we do know is he was a Christian.
CHAPTER SIX – SUPERNATURAL AID
Macbeth enters with the community cast wearing cloaks.
CHANT
Os mutorum, lux cecorum
PORTER
Mouth of the dumb people, light of the blind people.
CHANT
Pes clausorum, porridge
PORTER
Foot of the lame people
CHANT
Lapsis manum, firma vanum
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PORTER
To the fallen stretch out thy hand
CHANT
Et insanum corrige
PORTER
Strengthen the vain and insane. Invigorate!
CHANT
O Columba, spes scottorum
PORTER
Columba, hope of the scots
CHANT
Nos tuorum, meritorum, interventu beatorum, fac consortes angelorum
PORTER
By thy standing, by meditation, make us the companion of angels.
The Community Cast exit leaving Macbeth alone in the centre of the
columns.
PORTER
Aye a Christian, disciple of God, a man of peace and charity. He travelled to
Rome and according to the Berchin prophecy “scattered money like seeds to
the poor of Italy.” Must have been well liked for Scots to have their money
scattered on the Italians. Still he was following Columba’s direction.
Bringing the word of Christ to the pagan picts and gaels. He sang the
columban songs and carried his word to his resting place. It’s not much of a
story that way though. Who wants a goody when you can have the first
tragic hero. Who wants the happy ending when you can have the best thriller
ever told.
Who wants a Christian king when you can have one that consorts wae the
devil……..
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The Prohecy.
The witches come forward. They parade expectantly. Macbeth addresses
them.
MACBETH
Upon my head they have placed a fruitless crown, and put a barren sceptre in
my grip, thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, no son of mine
succeeding. If it’d be so, for Banquo’s issue have I filed my mine; For them
the gracious Duncan have I murdered; Put rancours in the vessel of my
peace only for them, and mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of
man, to make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
MACBETH
How now you black and midnight hags! What is’t you do?
ALL WITCHES
A deed without a name!
MACBETH
I conjure you, by that which you profess howe’er you come to know it,
answer me:
FIRST WITCH
Speak
SECOND WITCH
Demand
THIRD WITCH
We’ll answer.
FIRST WITCH
Say, if th’hadst rather hear it from our mouths or our masters.
MACBETH
Call em let me see em..
ALL WITCHES
Come high or low, thyself and office deftly show
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FIRST WITCH
Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware macduff, beware the thane of fife,
dismiss me enough
SECOND WITCH
Be bloody bold and resolute! Laugh to scorn, pow’r of man for none of
woman born shall harm Macbeth
THIRD WITCH
Be lion mettled, proud and take no care, who chafes, who frets, or where
conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam wood
to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him
MACBETH
That will never be. Who can impress the forest, bid the tree unfix his earth
bound root? Yet my heart throbs to know one thing. If your art can tell so
much: shall Banquo’s issue ever reign this kingdom?
ALL WITCHES
Seek to know no more
MACBETH
I will be satisfied: deny me this. And an external curse fall on you, let me
know.
ALL WITCHES
Show, Show, Show
Video or movement piece with the children depicting the lineage of Banquo.
MACBETH
Thou art too much like the spirit of Banquo, down!
Thy crown does sear mine eyelids, and thy hair, thou other gold bound brow,
is like the first. A third is like the former. Filthy hags why do you show me
this? A fourth! Start eyes! What will the line stretch out to the crack of
doom?
Another yet! A Seventh! I’ll see no more; and yet an eighth appears, who
bares a glass which shows me many more;
Horrible sight! Now I see it’s true for the blood bolstered Banquo smiles
upon me and points them for his.
33
Macbeth collapses under the weight of the truth.
FIRST WITCH
Ay, sir, all this is so. But why
Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?
Come, sisters, cheer we up his spirits,
And show the best of our delights:
I’ll charm the air to give a sound,
While you perform your antic round,
That this great king may kindly say
Our duties did his welcome pay.
Music. The witches dance, and vanish
MACBETH
Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious
hour
Stand aye accursed in the calendar!
Come in, without there!
Enter Lennox
LENNOX
What’s your Grace’s will?
MACBETH
Saw you the weird sisters?
LENNOX
No, my lord.
MACBETH
Came they not by you?
LENNOX
No indeed, my lord.
34
MACBETH
Infected be the air whereon they ride,
And damned all those that trust them! I did hear
The galloping of horse. Who was’t came by?
LENNOX
‘Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you
word
Macduff is fled to England.
MACBETH
Fled to England?
LENNOX
Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH(Aside)
Time, thou anticipat’st my
dread exploits.
The flighty purpose never is o’ertook
Unless the deed go with it. From this moment
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand. And even now,
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and
done:
The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
Seize upon Fife; give to th’edge o’ th’ sword
His wife, his babies, and all unfortunate souls
That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;
This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool:
But no more sights! - Where are these gentlemen?
Come, bring me where they are.
35
The death of innocence.
During Macbeths speech about surprising Macduffs castle and putting his
children and wife to the sword. He takes his dagger and cuts his palm to gain
resolve.
Macbeth
I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as
tedious as go o’er.
He grips his hand and blood pours from it. He shows no pain.
He exits.
A little child runs on with one of the white flower buttonholes. She dips it in
the blood turning it the vivid red colour.
There is a musical signature that denotes the death of innocence. She turns
to the audience and offers it with a smile. When the audience member takes
it she holds her hand out with a slightly different gesture that is more like
she is pointing than pleading for cash.
Music- really discordant and uncomfortable. The Children and cast lead a
manic chorus of screaming. It is really disturbing. They vanish once again.
Macduffs garden. It is sweetness and light. The children enter and play like
it’s war with their father. They fight and over act.
CHILD ONE
Ha good father, thou seest the heavens as troubled with mans act, threatens
his bloody stage. By the clock ‘tis day and yet dark night strangles the
travelling lamp; Is’t nights predominance, or the days shame, that darkness
does the face of earth entomb, when living light should kiss it?
MACDUFF
Tis unnatural, even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last a falcon,
towring in her pride of place was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.
CHILD 2
36
And Duncan’s horses - a thing most strange and certain – beauteous and
swift, the minions of their race, turned wild in nature, broke their stalls,
flung out, contending gainst obedience, as they would make war with
mankind.
MACDUFF
Tis said they eat each other.
CHILD 2
They did so, to th’ amazement of mine eyes, that looked upon’t.
CHILD 3
Here comes the good Macduff. How goes the world sir.
MACDUFF
Why see you not?
CHILD ONE
Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed?
MACDUFF
Those that Macbeth have slain.
CHILD 2
Alas the day what good could they pretend?
MACDUFF
They were suborned. Malcolm and Donaldbain, the king two sons, are stolen
away and fled, which puts upon them suspicion of the deed.
ROSS
Then ‘tis most like the sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACDUFF
He is already named and gone to Scone to be invested.
37
CHILD ONE
Where is Duncan’s body?
Lady Macduff enters and interrupts the play.
MACDUFF
Carried to Colmekill, the sacred storehouse of his predecessors and guardian
of their bones.
LADY MACDUFF
Will you to Scone?
MACDUFF
No , I’ll to ………..
LADY MACDUFF
England ?.
The playing ends. The atmosphere has gone. Macduff and children return to
domestic duty of laying a table.
Sound: Acoustic, really plucking at heart
strings.
Visuals: Cool, clear water.
The Macduffs break bread and eat. It is the picture of domesticity, as if there
is all the time in the world. They play and cradle the baby it is totally
natural. Macduff tries to hand the baby to lady Macduff so he can leave she
refuses and then eventually relents. He makes to hold lady macduff but she
freezes. He leaves regretfully. She turns and he is gone.
Ross enters.
LADY MACDUFF
What had he done to make him fly the land?
ROSS
You must have patience, madam
38
LADY MACDUFF
He had none: His flight was madness: when our actions do not, our fears do
not make us traitors.
ROSS
You know not whether it is his wisdom or his fear
LADY MACDUFF
Wisdom! To leave his wife, to leave his babes, his mansion and his titles, in
a place from whence himself does fly? He loves us not; he wants the natural
touch; the poor wren the most diminutive of birds, will fight, her young ones
in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear and nothing is the love.
As little is the wisdom, where the flight so runs against all reason
ROSS
I am so much a fool, should I stay longer it would be my disgrace and your
discomfort. I take my leave at once.
PORTER
It will have blood, they say: Blood will have blood.
Macbeth enters. Music helps create instant fear. She guards her children.
LADY MACDUFF
I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world, where
to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometimes dangerous folly.
Macbeth advances on the children. They struggle and are slain.
The scavenger children come in and take the shoes off. Other scavengers
arrive with all their spoils of war.
A large movement piece ensues where the kids lay down hundreds of pairs of
shoes.
The gaelic choir sings a psalm from the ramparts of the towers. The music
ends and the choir leave. A bell rings.
At a given time the adults arrive and witness the carnage.
39
Macduff enters
MACDUFF
Not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more damned in evils to
top Macbeth. All my pretty ones, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one
fell swoop. I cannot but remember such things were that were most precious
to me.
ROSS
Be this the wetstone of thy sword. Let grief convert to anger. Blunt not the
heart enrage it.
MACDUFF
O I could play the woman with mine eyes, and braggart with my tongue! But
gentle heavens, cut short all intermission, front to front, bring thou this fiend
of Scotland and myself, within my swords length set him. If he ‘scape
heaven forgive him too!
Cast
Bleed bleed poor country great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, for goodness
dare not check thee: Not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more
damned and evil to top Macbeth.
Cast
And when we have our naked frailties hid that suffer in exposure, let us meet
and question this most bloody piece of work, to know it further, in the great
hand of god I stand….
MACDUFF
O Scotland, Scotland! O nation miserable! With an untitled tyrant bloody
sceptred, when shalt thou see thy wholesome days again…
Cast
O Horror! Horror Horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee.
Confusion now hath made a masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murder hath
broke ope the lords anointed temple, and stole thence the life o’ th’ bulding.
40
ROSS
Alas poor country! Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot be called our
mother but our grave…
Cast
New widows howl! New orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the
face, that it resounds as if it felt with Scotland and yelled out like syllable of
dollor.
MACBETH
I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning would
be tedious as g’or
MACBETH
Let this pernicious hour stand aye accursed in the calendar.
The movement piece ends. Lady Macbeth enters and they all make way for
her.
She surveys the carnage.
LADY MACBETH
Yet here’s a spot! Out, damned spot! Out I say! One: Two: why then ‘tis
time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie my lord fie! A soldier and afeard? What need
we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow’r to accompt?
Yet who would have thought the old man would have so much blood in him.
The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she know?
What, will these hands ne’er be clean?
No more my lord, no more o that: you mar all with starting.
Here’s the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten
this little hand. Oh! Oh! Oh!
Wash your hands, put on your night-gown, look not so pale:
I’ll tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried
; he can not come out on’s grave,
to, bed, to bed; there’s knocking at the gate:
come, come, come, give me your hand:
what’s done cannot be undone: to bed, to bed.
41
She picks up some of the shoes and tries them on she wails from the depths
of her heart. Macbeth enters with doctor. They watch.
MACBETH
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
Cast
Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
MACBETH
Throw physic to the dogs, I’ll none of it.
Come, put mine armor on. Give me my staff.
Seyton, send out. - Doctor, the thanes fly from
me. Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast
The water of my land, find her disease
And purge it to a sound and pristine health,
I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again. - Pull ‘t off, I say What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug,
What scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of
them?
CAST
Ay, my good lord: your royal preparation
Makes us hear something.
42
MACBETH
Bring it after me.
I will not be afraid of death and bane
Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
CAST (Aside)
Were I from Dunsinane away
and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here.
Again we hear drums- like in the first battle scene. The cast re enact Birnam
wood coming to dunsinane. The kids get ready for scavenging. They position
the audience ready for battle and offer them shoes.
Enter Macbeth, Seyton and Soldiers, with drum and colours.
MACBETH
Hang out our banners on the outward walls.
The cry is still “They come!” Our castle’s strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie
Till famine and the ague eat them up.
Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
We might have met them direful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home
A cry within a women
What is that noise?
SEYTON
It is the cry of women, mo good lord
Exit
MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears:
The time has been, my senses would have cooled
To hear a night-shriek and fell of hair
As life we in’t. I have supped full with horrors.
43
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.
Enter Seyton
Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
The Queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word,
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this pretty pace from day to day
To 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
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
Enter a messenger
Thou com’st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly!
MESSENGER
Gracious my lord,
I should report that which I say I saw,
But know not how to do ‘t
MACBETH
Well, say, sir
MESSENGER
As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
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I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
The wood began to move
MACBETH
Liar and slave!
MESSENGER
Let me endure your wrath, if’t be not so,
Within this three mile may you see it coming,
I say a moving grove
MACBETH
If thou speak’st false,
Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,
Till famine cling thee. If they speech be sooth,
I care not if thou dost for me as much.
I pull in resolution, and begin
To doubt th’ equivocation of the fiend
That lies the truth: “Fear not, till Birnam Wood
Do come to Dunsinane!” And now a wood
Comes towards Dunsinane. Arm, arm and out!
If this which he avouches does appear,
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here
I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun,
And wish th’ estate o’ th’ world were now undone
Ring the alarum bell! Blow wind, come wrack!
At least we’ll die with harness on our back
Exit
MACDUFF
Turn hell hound, Turn!
MACBETH
Of all the men else I have avoided thee. My soul is too much charged with
the blood of thine already.
MACDUFF
I have no words. My voice is in my sword.
45
MACBETH
Lay on Macduff and damned be he who first cries hold enough.
There is an almighty sword fight. Macbeth dies. The kids come and take his
shoes. The cast drift off leaving the kids.
CHILD ONE
Hail King of Scotland.
The kids sing their lament. It builds and they take back their flowers with
their gesture. They all stand as at the top of the show.
The RAF tornados fly by and they all hit the deck.
THE END
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