The Alabama Shakespeare Festival
2013 Study Materials and Activities for
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Director
Geoffrey Sherman
Contact ASF at: www.asf.net
1.800.841-4273
Set Design
Peter Hicks
Costume Design
Brenda van der Wiel
Lighting Design
Phil Monat
Study materials written by
Susan Willis, ASF Dramaturg
swillis@asf.net
ASF SchoolFest 2013/ 1
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Characters:
The Weird Sisters
King Duncan of Scotland
Malcolm, his elder son
Donalbain, his younger son
Macbeth, Thane of Glamis,
general of the Scottish army
Lady Macbeth, his wife
Banquo, another general
Fleance, Banquo's son
Lennox
Ross
Scottish
Menteith
noblemen
Angus
Macduff
Lady Macduff, wife to Macduff
Macduff's young son
Siward, Earl of
Northumberland, leading an
English army
Young Siward, his son
Seyton, Macbeth's attendant
A Porter to Macbeth
An Old Man
Two Murderers
A Gentlewoman, attending
Lady Macbeth
Servants, soldiers, messengers
}
Setting: Scotland and northern
England in the future
Welcome to MACBETH
Critics have long called The Tragedy of
Macbeth Shakespeare's greatest tragedy of
ambition, the play that culminates his meditation
on evil. It is also the last of the four great
tragedies he wrote in the first decade of the 17th
century. Thus Macbeth has become a cultural
icon of betrayal and lust for power, the story of a
husband and wife driven to murder by desire for
the crown, the story of a queen gone mad and
a king devoured by his own bloody ethic.
It is also the play in which the world of
magic, so sprightly a consort to Shakespeare's
comedy in A Midsummer Night's Dream and The
Tempest, takes its darkest coloring in the form
of the Weird Sisters, forces of natural disorder,
emotional chaos, and even damnation.
Tragedy versus History
But in addition to these issues, Macbeth
is also a history play, for many of these figures
actually existed, and by seeing it in the context
of the English history plays that Shakespeare
wrote, where he torqued the already adjusted
facts of the chroniclers to make great dramatic
stories, we gain a new view of the action.
Readjustment is exactly what happens to the
historical Macbeth, who would not recognize
himself if he saw Shakespeare's play, which
strives more to entertain and provide a becoming
reflection of Shakespeare's own king, James I,
than of the 11th century Scottish ruler.
A section of George Cattermole's "Macbeth
instructing the murderers employed
to kill Banquo"
About ASF's 2013 Macbeth
About These Study Materials
ASF's Producing Artistic Director Geoffrey
Sherman will be directing Macbeth this winter,
and in discussing his vision for the play, he
mentioned how struck he was by the initial
image given of Macbeth—"he unseamed him
from the nave to the chops"—that eviscerating
blow. The violence of the piece made its world
seem "less civillized than the one we know" (or
like to believe we know).
In looking for a time "without baggage" in
which to set the action, that is, a time without
predetermined associations, prejudices, or even
lived experience, Sherman decided to adopt a
post-apocalyptic world like that of the Mad Max
films, "a lawless time when nothing works." It
is a world without manufactured guns or cars;
weapons are found or sharpened objects. Others
are not necessarily allies because "existence
itself is a threat."
Find more information on the pages about
witches and about the design for the show.
These study materials provide:
• information on the play, including a synopsis
of action
• analysis of the action, characters, and
imagery
• historical background on the major characters and Scotland's Celtic past
• historical context for the play's composition
• information about productions and useful
video resources
• design and interpretive information about
the 2013 and earlier ASF productions of
Macbeth
• activities for class or study, usually
highlighted in red
• links to other resources online
ASF SchoolFest 2013/ 2
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Things To Consider
• what world (time and place)
the production is set in and
what values that world offers
the action
• who the Weird Sisters are
and what, if any, power or
influence they seem to have
over Macbeth and others
• why the Macbeths want to act
immediately
• how Macbeth responds to
having the crown
• how the Macbeths' consciences respond to their
bloodshed
• how other Scots respond to
Macbeth's use of power
• what difference Macbeth's
second talk with the Weird
Sisters makes on his attitude and actions
• how Macbeth responds to the
prophecies coming true
• how everyone deals with loss,
with battle, with striving for
power
Macbeth amid the Tragedies
Shakespeare spends much of his first
decade of playwriting in exploring the range
of romantic comedy and the shaping the new
genre of history plays by composing nine plays
about English history. Some of the history plays
seem also to be tragedies, especially Richard
III and Richard II.
During this time he only wrote two tragedies,
Titus Andronicus, a revenge tragedy riding the
wave of popularity from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy,
and an innovative tale about two teenage lovers,
Romeo and Juliet.
Once the Lord Chamberlain's Men moved
into the Globe Theatre, however, tragedies
poured from the pen of the Bard (all dates
approximate except Julius Caesar).
1599: Julius Caesar
1600-1: Hamlet
1603-4: Othello
1605: King Lear
1606: Macbeth
1607: Antony and Cleopatra
1607-8: Timon of Athens
1608: Coriolanus
One of Shakespeare's tragedies is set in
ancient Athens, one in ancient England, four in
ancient Rome, two more in Italy, one in Denmark
and one in Scotland. Both these latter plays,
Hamlet and Macbeth, reference the world of
the 11th century by source or history.
The Story of the Play
Three "Weird Sisters" prophesy that the
battle's victorious general, Macbeth, will become
king and Banquo will beget
kings. Disturbed by the
prophecy, Macbeth informs
his wife, who urges him
to take immediate action
and kill the current king,
Duncan, who will be staying
in their castle that night.
Macbeth's conscience
troubles him, but Lady
Macbeth prevails, and
Macbeth stabs Duncan as
he sleeps.
When the murder
is discovered, Duncan's
sons flee and Macbeth is
named king. Still uneasy
about Banquo's prophecy,
Macbeth has him murdered
only to be haunted by his
ghost at a banquet, after which he decides to
revisit the witches.
The witches tell Macbeth to beware Macduff
but that his own reign will last until Birnam Wood
comes to his castle, Dunsinane, and that none
of woman born can harm him. Feeling less
vulnerable, Macbeth nonetheless has Macduff's
family murdered.
Macduff learns of the murders while urging
Duncan's son Malcolm, to return to Scotland
with an English army to claim the throne. Many
Scottish lords join Malcolm as he marches
north, and Macbeth rules more by fear than
by loyalty and trust. Overcome by guilt, Lady
The Macbeths (Greta Lambert and Greg Thornton)
after Duncan's murder in ASF's 1997 Macbeth
Macbeth sleepwalks and tries to wash the blood
off her hands.
As Malcolm's army approaches under cover
of branches from Birnam Wood, Lady Macbeth is
found dead, and Macbeth faces Macduff during
the attack, only to learn that Macduff was "not
of woman born" but "untimely ripped" from his
mother's womb. Cursing the Weird Sisters and
those who trust them, Macbeth fights on, but
Macduff prevails and presents the usurper's
head to the victorious new king, Malcolm.
ASF 2013/ 3
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
The Issue of Responsibility
If the Weird Sisters have
no power, then Macbeth and his
Lady choose and are responsible
for their acts. If the Sisters do
have power, then Macbeth
and his Lady are at least partly
controlled by the witches' will. So
for both the play and ourselves we
must ask the essential questions
Marvin Rosenberg poses in The
Masks of Macbeth—
"Does my character
shape my destiny? Does
my destiny shape my
character? Do my witches
seek me out because of
what I am, or am I this
because of my witches? Do
I seek them?"
The seductiveness of a dagger—
Macbeth, ASF 2004 with Kathleen
McCall and Harry Carnahan
Studying the Play: Acts One­ and Two—Becoming King
Fair and Foul
The action opens with witches—that alone
sets up a power dynamic in the play, for they
claim to influence human behavior and react
spitefully when ignored or thwarted. They also
alert us to the fundamental values of fair and
foul, the changeable and deceptive forecasts
of the moral landscape in Macbeth.
While the stage directions refer to the three
women as "witches," they call themselves "the
Weird Sisters," a term that Macbeth and Banquo
also use for them. Only when he feels betrayed
by their prophesies at the end does Macbeth
begin to call them "fiends."
By starting with witches or Weird Sisters,
Shakespeare poses questions—since they are
there, are they in charge? Do they have real
ultimate power or do they just think they have
power? Do we believe in their power? And more
to the point for the play, does Macbeth believe
in their power?
In his first response after the Weird Sisters's
prophetic greeting, Macbeth calls them "imperfect speakers," a genuine insight, but only in the
sense of incomplete rather than flawed, which
is also true, as he will learn.
Kinsman and Killer
From the victorious end of the battle to the
"victorious" assassination takes seven scenes.
The large arc of the play is thus not about killing
the king, but about what happens to Macbeth
once he has killed a king and become king
himself. The difference between ambition and
rule fascinates Shakespeare in other plays,
such as Richard III, but nowhere as intensely
as here. Ruthless ambition can gain the crown,
but ruthlessness corrodes sovereignty.
Macbeth considers the apparent prophetic
"promise" of majesty with a host of questions
and tries to weigh its implications with Banquo
and then Lady Macbeth both before and during
the first banquet. His own inclination does not
instantly seize a dagger; it considers the idea
of a dagger and its moral consequences. His
wife sees only gain, but the fact that the Thane
is so often in aside or soliloquy in these scenes
shows us his unquiet inner state, yearning but
cognizant of the wrong and its eternal cost. Even
after the murder Macbeth reels at the blood,
the evidence of the deed. Yet he surprises his
wife by killing the grooms, a public "avenging"
murder, and then Banquo secretly. Where and
why does he shift from conflicted to killer? Does
he ever act without conscience?
Macbeth (Julian
Gamble), ASF
1990 with 11thcentury Scottish
costumes
Pursuing the
Text
• Moral
meteorology:
how many
scenes in
Macbeth take
place in storms,
stormy weather,
or darkness?
Assess Shakespeare's use of thunder, storm,
darkness, and dark deeds, those prompted
by what Banquo calls "the instruments of
darkness":
The opening battlefield seems to be
"foul" while the air at Macbeth's castle
seems "fair" at least until the banquet, but
Lady Macbeth has entreated "Come, thick
night," and after dinner the clouds close in
and darken the land even by day. Macbeth
calls on "seeling night" as the murderers set
out, and it is growing dark when Banquo is
murdered; the second banquet is an evening
scene. It thunders as Macbeth meets the
Weird Sisters a second time and thunders
with each apparition. Malcolm voices the
wish: "The night is long that never finds the
day." The doctor watches Lady Macbeth
sleepwalk at night. Once Malcolm and his
army reach Scotland, however, daylight
seems to return.
• How many scenes or sections of
scenes in Macbeth have three characters
conferring or plotting? It's not just the witches,
so is there a link between the three-person
scenes? What traits do these scenes share?
• Track or chart how Macbeth weighs
the possibility of gaining power by murdering
Duncan—what is on each side; how do
moral and spiritual issues figure next to
worldly gain; who else may "weigh in" on
the matter, how and when. Compare this
decision-making process with his decision to
kill Banquo, to attack Macduff's castle, and to
confront the "enemy" at the end.
ASF 2013/ 4
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
To Hecate or Not to Hecate?
Most scholars suggest
that the Hecate scenes are a
later addition to the play by
another Renaissance playwright,
Thomas Middleton, especially
since these scenes include
songs known to be written
by Middleton (Shakespeare
writes his own songs for his
plays). Such tinkering after
a playwright's death was far
from unknown in Elizabethan
theatre—for example, Ben
Jonson was hired by the Rose
Theatre's impressario Henslowe
to add several speeches to the
period's most popular play, Kyd's
Spanish Tragedy. As a result
of questionable authorship and
because they start a new issue
of power plays in the supernatural
realm, directors usually cut the
Hecate scenes and comparable
lines that suggest the witches
dance.
And the Provenance of the
Text
Shakespeare's great
tragedies are huge verse
structures: Hamlet with 3900+
lines, Othello and King Lear
with 3300+. All but Macbeth, that
is, for its 2100 lines has raised
eyebrows; why is it so much
shorter than the other tragedies
he wrote between 1600 and
1606?
Perhaps, some have
claimed, we actually have the
touring script of the play, the
simplified and shortened version
performed outside London by a
streamlined company of actors.
Compare the action of
Macbeth to that of Romeo and
Juliet or Julius Caesar. Does
it move differently? If there
hypothetically were more action
in Macbeth, what would you want
to see? Where would it be?
Studying the Play: Act Three—What Kind of King?
One Good Deed
Lady Macbeth believes one
murder will bring success, but
Macbeth is not the story of the one
cleansing kill until the end. For
Macbeth, his blood-soaked battle
experience morphs into murder and
carries over into his reign with yet
more blood.
Another Banquet, Another Guest
Macbeth greets Banquo at
the top of 3.1 as his "chief guest."
Considering the fate of Macbeth's
previous chief guest, we might
advise Banquo to start running now,
because he is a guest invited to
a dinner by Macbeth, an ominous
pattern in this play. The Thane's
ambition gives way to a king's "initate fear"
and paranoia—and not without reason, since
Banquo is also remembering his prophetic
promise—and fear seeks security by the "safest"
unsafe means. More blood will surely stop "the
terrible dreams / That shake us nightly," Macbeth
urges, ignoring that bloodshed caused them.
Banquo proves to be a very surprising
dinner guest, for Macbeth ironically chides the
absent Thane for lateness and, having his death
confirmed, continues the banter only to find
himself staring at Banquo's Ghost. This ghost
seems unrelated to the Weird Sisters and may
be more an instance of the "terrible dreams"
of conscience manifesting themselves in this
guilty psyche.
The banquet begins to undermine any
hope Macbeth may have had of getting away
with murder; once alone with his wife, his first
statement is, "It will have blood, they say; blood
will have blood." He can feel the tide of the
action turning against him, the vengeful focus
now aimed at him. So he turns to the Weird
Sisters again, seeking them out "to know / By
the worst means the worst." So the second chief
guest and second banquet bring on a second
meeting with the Sisters.
The Answering Force
Macduff, much stronger at this point in the
play, is now the Thane Macbeth tracks: "How
sayst thou, that Macduff denies his person /
At our great bidding?" He denies Macbeth's
behests and will go to England to plead for
England's aid against "the tyrant." Macbeth is
not wrong in his suspicions; the tide is indeed
turning against him.
Harry Carnahan and Kathleen McCall on their
thrones in ASF's 2004 production
Pursuing the Text
• Macbeth's speeches and soliloquies
are justly famous, starting in 1.3 after the
prophecies with his desperate need to think
that is continually interrupted, so his thoughts
become asides. Divide into groups and have
each decide how each soliloquy or set of
asides tells the story of Macbeth's intersifying
crises:
— the 1.3 asides
— the 1.6 "If it were done" soliloquy
— the 2.1 "Is this a dagger"
soliloquy
— the aftermath short speeches in 2.2
— the set of speeches to the thanes after he kills the grooms
— the "To be thus is nothing"
soliloquy in 3.1
— the short speeches to his wife in 3.2
— the responses to seeing Banquo's ghost in 3.4
— his demands and responses to the Weird Sisters in 4.1
— "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" in 5.5
— Macbeth's brief exchange with Macduff before they fight
• With Macbeth such a driving force in
the play, what is the effect on the action of
having him offstage from the end of 4.1 to
5.3? How does the balance of the play redefine itself there?
ASF 2013/ 5
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Photo by Dean Conger of
ancient oaks near Birnam Wood
Engraving by the Brothers
Dalziel of Macduff's showdown
with Macbeth
Studying the Play: Acts Four and Five—Another King
Promises and Payback
The spirits answer Macbeth's requests
before he makes them; three apparitions affirm
the danger Macduff poses, but that "none of
woman born / Shall harm Macbeth," though
Macbeth says on that score he plans to be
"double sure" (double being the word that echoes
through the chant over the cauldron). The third
vision, a child—a challenging form since he is
childless while Duncan and Banquo were
not—that pledges "Macbeth shall never
vanquished be until…," which is not, we
note, an absolute guarantee of safety.
Yet Macbeth insists on verifying the
Weird Sisters's initial prophecy about
Banquo, a verification which torments
him. That vision of Banquo's heirs taking
power seems to stoke his revenge against
Macduff, so that he strikes his castle and
family, not the man himself. This man who
once deliberated about killing now vows,
"This deed I'll do before this purpose cool,"
a no-thought, no-regret, no-"dream" policy. Can
he keep it?
Husbands and Wives
As the sickness/health/medical imagery
swells in the play, Macbeth does indeed
slaughter all at Macduff's castle, thus enciting
that Thane's commitment to Malcolm's military
cause. But Macbeth's own wife is threatened
as well by an inner malady as lethal as the
murderers' blades, a "mind diseased." At what
point her mind becomes diseased is a question;
perhaps as early as "Come, you spirits" in 1.5?
She, too, has visions—visions of ineradicable
blood and the certainty that "what's done cannot
be undone," a recognition her husband shares.
He, too, loses his wife and heads toward the
inevitable combat as a solitary figure.
Onslaught—Visions Come True
As the invading army reclaiming Scotland
for Malcolm approaches (and whether we see
this as an English or a Scottish army may matter,
at least to the Scots and English), the numbers
tilt toward Malcolm. He has backing; Macbeth
has fewer and fewer to defend him, until at last
he confronts Young Siward and then Macduff.
His security is stripped from him bit by bit as
the promises prove impossibly true: the forest
approaches, and Macduff was not "born" but
"untimely ripped" from his mother. The word
tyrant echoes through the play's conclusion,
but is the tyranny one man's or that of Wyrd,
ambition, or of blood? And we head finally to a
second crowning at Scone.
Pursuing the Text
• The witches' brew involves using "poison'd
entrails"—who else's entrails and
sensibility are poisoned in this scene?
How? Why?
• Everything involving Macduff in Act 4 is
hasty—Macbeth's resolve to murder
Macduff's family ["This deed I'll do before
this purpose cool…."], Macduff's leaving
home ["What had he done, to make him
fly the land?" and "Why in that rawness
left you wife and child… without leavetaking?"]. What might be behind this
sudden action? (Note, too, how Lady
Macduff's "When our actions do not,/ Our
fears do make us traitors" could describe
Macbeth to the end of the play.
• Compare Lady Macbeth's response to
the letter in 1.5 to her sleepwalking. Is
she guilty or did the spirits she invoked
abandon her? Or both?
ASF 2013/ 6
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Scotland
area under Jarl of
Orkneys
Moray
Atholl
England
11th-century Scottish Kings
Kenneth III, 997-1005
Malcolm II, 1005-1034
Duncan I, 1034-1040
MacBeth, 1040-1057
Lulach (Lady Macbeth's son by
first marriage), 1057-1058
Malcolm III (Duncan's son),
1058-1093
Donalbain, 1093-1094
Duncan II (Malcolm's son),
1094
Donalbain, 1094-1097
Edgar (Duncan II's
stepbrother), 1097-1106
11th-century English Kings
Ethelred II (the Unready), 9781016
Edmund II (Ironside, his son),
1016
Canute (Danish king), 10161035
Harold I (Canute's son), 10351040
Hardecanute (Canute's son),
1040-1042
Edward the Confessor (son of
Ethelred II), 1042-1066
Harold II (Edward's brother-inlaw), 1066
William the Conqueror, 10661087
William II (his third son), 10871100
The 11th Century in Scotland and England
England and Scotland were separate
countries until 1708, and until the 11th century,
which greatly changed both, they were also
separate cultures. During the Roman occupation
of England, the native Celtic culture was driven
west to Wales and north to Scotland, and since
the Romans' leaving in 410 CE, the island we
now know as Great Britain had been subject
to the marauding attacks and settlements of
various Germanic tribes in the south, especially
the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and Norwegian
Vikings in the north.
Scotland
Macbeth called the land he lived in Alba,
not Scotland; in fact, Alba is still the word for
the country in modern Gaelic. The name Scotia
began to be used in the early 11th century,
derived from a tribe of Irish marauders, the scotti,
who settled in Scotland in the third century.
In the 11th century, the extreme northern
part of Scotland and the Orkney and Hebrides
Islands were not part of Alba but under the
control of Viking chiefs, the jarls [earls] of the
Orkneys. When the Picts ("the painted people")
and Scots joined in the 9th century, their territory
was divided into six provinces, the northernmost
being Moray, which spread from sea to sea. The
central area was Atholl. Each province north
of Scone, the capital, had its own mormaer, or
high steward, who governed it. Over the entire
land was the Ard-Righ, the High King, who was
crowned standing on the Stone of Scone, from
the Celtic tradition of swearing an oath on a
sacred stone.
Celtic Culture
Celts had common ownership rather than
private property. The Celtic Catholic church
was also distinctive, for services were held not
in Latin but in the native language, and priests
could still marry, though these practices began
to change in the 11th century.
True to the Celtic clan system, the Scottish
king was elected from among the mormaers and
clan leaders; there was no birth-right to rule, only
to candidacy. In the centuries before the 11th,
the power had alternated between the leaders of
Moray and Atholl, and assassination had been
the primary means of gaining the crown.
England
Anglo-Saxon kings ruled England at the
start of the 11th century, but they were challenged
and defeated by the strong Danish king, Canute,
so that the Danes ruled England for the middle
of the century. The Anglo-Saxon line reasserted
itself when Edward the Confessor got the crown
in 1042. He ruled England during the reign of
the historical Macbeth in Scotland.
But 1066 is a crucial date in English history,
for at the Battle of Hastings, William of Normandy
defeated King Harold of England, and England
came under the rule of a Norman-French king
who spoke no English. Primogeniture was the
monarchical tradition for Norman rulers, and
Latin religious practice also brought the feudal
system and private property.
French became the language of the English
royal court and judicial system, just as Latin
was the language of the church. Anglo-Saxon
disappeared as a written language; in 1250 when
written English reappeared, the language was
what we now know as Middle English.
The Stone of Destiny (The Stone of Scone)
The Liath Fàil, or Stone of Destiny, is the coronation stone
of Irish and Scottish kings, supposedly stolen by English king
Edward I and thereafter kept under the seat of the English
coronation chair until it was returned to Scotland in 1996. Stories
of the stone's authenticity vary: some Scottish nationalists say
it was stolen in 1950; other wags say it was never taken at all
and that Edward I mistakenly seized a rough stone covering a
cesspool at Edinburgh Castle.
Read more about the stone and its legendary history at:
http://www.thehypertexts.com/mysterious_ways/the%
20stone%20of%20destiny%20stone%20of%20scone%20
cornonation%20stone%20scotland.htm
ASF 2013/ 7
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Of these 15 kings,
•11 were killed, many by the next to take crown or his followers
•1 was usurped, who
regained crown by killing
•by 1107, primogeniture is in effect
Leadership Transfer in Celtic Alba
Let's look at power transfer between leaders
in actual Scottish history for the 150 years that
include the reign of Macbeth. The regions of
Moray and Atholl alternate holding the power
until Malcolm II tries to keep power in Atholl.
Kings are listed down the page in order of
rule, with clan or family allegiance indicated by
colors left or right:
ATHOLL
MORAY
• Malcolm I (ruled 943-954)
killed by men of Moray
• Indulf ( 954-962) killed by Danes •Dubh (962-966)
son of Malcolm I
• Culen (966-971)
• Kenneth II (971-995)
brother of Dubh
killed by Finella
The last oak tree believed to be
part of the ancient oak forest
known as Birnam Wood, its lower
branches now supported
Note: Scottish genealogy
of the10th and 11th
centuries is a bit tricky, and
historians do not agree
on the exact relationships
between some of these
figures prior to Malcolm
III. Chronicles of early
history were traditionally as
much fiction as fact, and
figures and relationships
were sometimes invented
or changed to tell a better
story in terms of its "moral."
If you research 11thcentury Scotland, do not be
surprised to find variations
to this list.
MORAY
ATHOLL
Both Malcolm I and Indulf are great-
grandsons to former king, Kenneth MacAlpin
son of Indulf
killed in Strathclyde
• Constantine III (995-997)
son of Culen
killed by Kenneth III
• Kenneth III (997-1005)
son of Dubh
killed, along with his heirs,
by his cousin Malcolm II
• Malcolm II (1005-1034) son of Kenneth II, who has three daughters; chooses an
Atholl grandson as heir and kills off other
male relatives who might claim throne
died a natural death
• Duncan I (1034-1040),
Malcolm II's grandson,
son of mormaer of Atholl
killed in battle
• Macbeth (1040-1057)
another of Malcolm II's grandsons,
son of mormaer of Moray
killed by Malcolm III's forces
• Lulach (1057-1058)
Macbeth's stepson and great-grandson
of Kenneth III through his mother's line,
Gruoch (Lady Macbeth), who was first
married to one of Kenneth III's sons/heirs
killed by Malcolm III
The remains of an ancient
• Malcolm III (1058-93)
hill fort on Dunsinane Hill
elder son of Duncan I
• Donalbain (1093-1094,1094-97)
younger son of Duncan I
usurped briefly by Duncan II
• Duncan II (1094)
son of Malcolm III and his first wife
killed by Donalbain?
• Edgar (1097-1107)
The royal standard
Duncan II's half-brother
of Scotland today
start of primogeniture ASF 2013/ 8
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Macbeth's Reign in a Chronicle
And seventeen winters full he reigned
As king he was in Scotland.
All his time was great plenty
Abounding both on land and sea.
He was in justice right lawful
And to his liege men all
awe-full.
—Andrew of Wyntoun, Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland (c. 1400)
The sacred Isle of Iona, burial
ground where 48 honored Scottish
kings are laid to rest, including
Macbeth, though inscriptions on
individual graves are no longer
identifiable
The Testimony of Burial
One last testimony of how
his countrymen thought of
MacBeth is where they buried
him. In Celtic Scottish tradition,
all legitimate kings were buried
on the Isle of Iona; no usurper
lay there. MacBeth and his
stepson Lulach were both buried
on Iona. Interestingly, Duncan's
son Malcolm Canmore was not
buried there.
Macbeth, the Last Celtic King of Scotland
Two basic facts about the reign of the
historical Macbeth continue to surprise the
readers of Shakespeare's tragedy—that
MacBeth was a good king and that he reigned
in comparative peace for 17 years. Add to this
the fact that Duncan, MacBeth's predecessor
on the throne, was a greedy and ambitious man
who was considered a failure during his fiveyear reign. How did Shakespeare end up with
the character he portrayed, no more accurate
a presentation than his Richard III, although
equally effective as drama?
Macbeth lived from 1005 to 1057 and ruled
Scotland as High King from 1040 to 1057. He
and Duncan were both grandsons of King
Malcolm II. Macbeth's mother, Doada, the king's
daughter, married the powerful mormaer [high
steward] of Moray, Findlaech Mac Ruaridh, just
as her older sister, Bethoc, Duncan's mother,
married Crinan, the mormaer of Atholl and abbot
of Dunkeld (at a time when clergy in the Celtic
church were not yet celibate).
The custom in Scotland was for a dying
king to name his successor, who would then
be considered by the clan leaders as initial
candidate for election to the kingship. After
first eradicating powerful likely rivals from
Moray, however, King Malcolm II from Atholl
named his Atholl grandson Duncan as heir,
and in 1034 Duncan was duly elected. He led
his countrymen into five wars during his reign
and lost all five, so the Scots were not grieved
when the 39-year-old monarch was defeated
and killed during battle against the jarl of the
Orkneys in late August, 1040.
His sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, were
then age 9 and 7. Duncan's father sent Malcolm
and his Danish mother to the English court of
Edward the Confessor while Donalbain was sent
to Ireland. Thus Malcolm grew up outside the
Celtic culture; he did not speak Gaelic but his
mother's Danish and the English king's NormanFrench, and he also picked up European and
new English ideas about land ownership and
inheritance.
The leader credited with Duncan's defeat
was 35-year-old MacBeth, who was elected
the next High King of Scotland. While clan
rivalry between Moray and Atholl was potent
and the history of the Scottish throne one of
assassination, there is no historical record of
who killed Duncan as he retreated from his last
defeat, but MacBeth was the mormaer of Moray
and the worthiest candidate for the crown.
A time of peace is rare for clans of Gaelic
warriors, but MacBeth's rule was interrupted
only by Duncan's father, Crinan, and clansmen
of Atholl, who made one last effort to challenge
MacBeth's kingship in 1045. MacBeth might
have ruled even longer in peace and prosperity
had Duncan's English-raised son, Malcolm,
not claimed the Scottish throne by right of
primogeniture, which was a new Norman custom
brought to England, not a Scottish/Celtic law.
Malcolm enlisted his Danish kinsmen in northern
England, especially Siward, to back his claim
and eventually won. But he did not succeed
MacBeth; Macbeth's stepson Lulach was next
elected king, and Malcolm had to assassinate
him, too, to get the crown.
History: What's in a Name?
What does it say about history that we know
the names of these Scottish historical figures
only in their anglicized forms rather than by their
Gaelic originals?
Gaelic name
Anglicized name
Mac Bheatha
MacBeth
(pronounced Mac Vah-ha)
Donnchadh
Duncan
Maol Cullum
Malcolm
Donhnall Ban
Donald Ban/
Donalbain
The current Glamis Castle, the earliest part of which
dates from the early 15th century, long after the
historical Macbeth, although it has a room called
Duncan's Hall and a legend of the murder
ASF 2013/ 9
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
John Singer Sargent,
"Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth,"
1889
The Historical Lady Macbeth
There was a real Lady MacBeth, just as
there was a real MacBeth. Her name, although
we never hear it in Shakespeare's play, was
Gruoch.
Women in Celtic Scotland had a very
prominent role. "A woman could be elected
chieftain and even lead her clan into battle,"
historian Peter Berresford Ellis states. She
owned the property she brought into marriage,
and inheritance could occur through female lines.
Women and their honor had legal protection,
although the most severe punishment a woman
herself could receive was banishment, not
death.
Like Macbeth, Gruoch was the grandchild
of a Scottish king. Her grandfather, Kenneth III,
ruled immediately before MacBeth's grandfather,
Malcolm II, and in securing his
throne, Malcolm II had all of
Kenneth's sons killed so they
could make no counter-claim
to the crown.
Gruoch's first husband
was not MacBeth but his
cousin, Gillecomgain, who,
along with his brother, killed
MacBeth's father, Findlaech
Mac Ruaridh, in order to gain
clan leadership. MacBeth was
only 15 at the time, too young
to be mormaer. Gruoch and
Gillecomgain had one son,
Lulach.
Why Hold a Grudge against
Duncan?
Marrying Gruoch
would have strengthened
Gillecomgain's political position
as mormaer of Moray, for like
her husband she was a living
challenge to the power of King
Malcolm II and his chosen heir,
Duncan. In 1032, however,
forces from Atholl surprised
and burned Gillecomgain and his men in their
fortress. In the Celtic tradition, this would be
considered eliminating the Moray opposition, for
the king and his heir, Duncan, were both from
Atholl. The next year Malcolm II also murdered
Gruoch's brother, who had his own strong claim
to the throne.
After Gillecomgain's death, 28-year-old
MacBeth was elected mormaer of Moray; he
then married his cousin's widow, Gruoch, and
adopted Lulach. That act could be seen as
declaring his own right to power, but Malcolm
II, at the age of 80, died before he could take
action against this Moray grandson. MacBeth's
cousin Duncan, Malcolm's designated heir, at
age 33 was elected High King in 1034.
Once crowned in 1040, MacBeth and
Gruoch were known to be wise rulers and were
particularly generous to the church and to the
monastery at Kinross. Many chroniclers comment
that MacBeth was
a good king: "this
Makbeth did many
pleasand actis
in the begynning
of his regnne,"
says Wyntoun.
"So peaceful
and secure did
the kingdom
become," adds
modern historian
Ellis, "that MacBeth
was able to make
a pilgrimage to
Rome and return
to find all as he had
left it."
Lady Macbeth, ASF 1997 (Greta Lambert);
the Celtic power wife and the sleepwalker
ASF 2013/10
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Woodcut of Macbeth and Banquo
encountering the Weird Sisters in
Holinshed's Chronicles, 1587
"Chronicling" Shakespeare's Macbeth
The victors write the histories, an adage
particularly true of English history. MacBeth's
overthrow was key in the cultural shift that came
to Scotland by way of England.
What Malcolm's Rule Did
When "English" Malcolm allowed English
and Danish troops to put him on the Scottish
throne, Scotland had just
been invaded by England
in more ways than one.
Military incursions across
the border may have been
common practice, but each
country had separate, longstanding cultural and political
practices. Supplanting those
would devastate the Celtic
tradition in Scotland.
Malcolm and his heirs,
except for Irish-raised
Donalbain, changed life in Scotland. As a result
of Malcolm's rule, the feudal system pervaded
Scotland, and private property replaced the
Celtic tradition of property commonly held.
Moreover, kings began to claim the crown
by primogeniture, and the old Celtic elective
system disappeared. No longer would "the
most capable" be chosen to lead, but simply
the eldest surviving son or brother.
Later English and Scottish Chroniclers
About 350 years after the death of MacBeth,
the details of his "history" begin to change in
the chronicles. For instance, there is no mention
of a Macduff until 1384, when John of Fordun
creates him, claiming the thane went into exile
because he was friendly toward Duncan's
sons. A generation later, Andrew of Wyntoun
calls Macduff a noble from Fife and slayer of
MacBeth, although he does not mention any
attempt MacBeth made on Macduff's family.
Subsequent chroniclers continued to invent
history. The medieval tradition of chronicle
writing was partly linked to our current historical
practice of accurately recording facts and
personages involved in shaping events. But
the guidelines were broader, and telling a good
story was equally important, so chroniclers would
often decide on the "big picture" or "moral" that
their account would sanction and then fit details
to that view, whether they happened that way
or not. In the 16th century the Tudor myth was
created in just this way, as chroniclers made
the triumph of Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field
seem inevitable and God-ordained.
So it is that Hector Boece (c. 1465-1536)
was free to create the Macbeth story as we know
it. He created the character of Banquo, drew
the now-familiar ambitious character of Lady
Macbeth, and added the three weird sisters.
Shakespeare got his details shaped by an early
16th-century "historian," not from 11th-century
accounts. This historical fiction provides a good
story—but not a true one.
Henry Fuseli,"Macbeth and Banquo
Seeing the Witches"
ASF 2013/ 11
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Drawing of Guy Fawkes
setting the fuse, called the
"train"
cellar entry
Parliament Lane
Partial map of Whitehall
The power of Macbeth is largely its demonic
drive to power and dissolution. Huge destructive
events were already much on the minds of
Englishmen in 1606, the year Macbeth was first
produced, however, because the year before,
on November 5, 1605, a group of Catholic
extremists had come within hours of blowing
up the year's first session of Parliament while
the royal family, leading justices, and Protestant
church leaders were all in attendance. Known
as the Gunpowder Plot, this near-annihilation
of English government was avoided when the
king was shown an intercepted letter. The
letter, dissuading a friend from attending the
Parliamentary session, mentioned a "blow" to be
"received" during the session, and King James
understood the meaning of blow to be "blow up,"
so he had the building searched.
Had the fuse to the kegs of powder carefully
secreted in the vault under the chamber been
lit, the explosion would have been a master
stroke in the religious culture wars waged
since the English Reformation a century
earlier. Catholic forces had tried for years
to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I before
she finally agreed to behead her Catholic
cousin and presumed heir, Mary, Queen
of Scots, in 1587. Not to be deterred,
the Catholics, in reprisal, focused on
that Mary's Protestant son, James I,
Elizabeth's actual heir, who decided to
"spin" the events as Providential and
called gunpowder the devil's invention.
To this day, effigies of Guy Fawkes,
the munitions expert in charge of the
attempted explosion, are burnt in effigy
on pyres across England the 5th of each
November.
River Thames
House
of
Lords
Macbeth's 17th-Century Context: The Gunpowder Plot
Beheaded conspirators
The bonfire from a
recent Guy Fawkes Day
remembrance in London
As Garry Wills argues in his fascinating
book, Witches and Jesuits: Shakespeare's
Macbeth (1995), the presence of witches,
the murderous plots, and Porter's jokes on
equivocation in Shakespeare's tragedy all make
contemporary references to the 1605 conspiracy
and the trials of the conspirators.
Using the common descriptive image for the
event, clergyman Lancelot Andrewes preached
of the attempt to make November 5th "a foul day":
"Be they fair or foul, glad or sad,… The Father
of Days has made them all." Recognizing the
context of the phrase gives Macbeth's opening
line, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" a
new and different ring for an early 17th century
audience. Many plays and poems mentioned
foxes [Fawkeses] and devils in vaults, as well
as making reference to "blows" and "blow up"
and "train," meaning a line of events or trail of
gunpowder.
Consider these references in Macbeth and
how they might sound to a 1606 audience:
• Macbeth mentions that if he murders
Duncan, cherubim "Shall blow the horrid
deed in every eye"
• "Confusion now hath made his
masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious Murther hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence
The life of the building."
• "The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of."
Wills adds, "vault was the 'grassy knoll' of
Gunpowder writings."
ASF 2013/12
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Alexandre-Marie Collin,
"The Witches," 1827
"Rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft"
—1 Samuel 15.23, Geneva Bible
(quoted by Garry Wills)
Weird Sisters: The Renaissance and Witches
So are they "weird," "weyard"/ "wayward"
(the Folio spellings), or "Wyrd," the Anglo-Saxon
term implying forces of Fate? Both "weird" and
"weyard" actually come from the Old English
word "Wyrd," and the chronicler Holinshed calls
them "the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say)
the goddesses of destinie."
Holinshed's
account of these
figures in his
Chronicles of
Scotland says:
"As Makbeth and
Banquho journied
towards Fores …
there met them
three women in
strange and wild
apparell, resembling
creatures of the elder
world. Afterwards
the common opinion
was, that these
women were either
the weird sisters,
that is (as ye would
say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some
nymphs or feiries, indued with knowledge of
prophesie by their necro-manticall science,
bicause everie thing came to pass as they had
spoken."
Later in Holinshed's account Macbeth
seeks prophecies from "certaine wizzards in
whose words he put great confidence" (who
warn him against Macduff) and "a certaine
witch" who prophesies about his being
invulnerable to anyone of woman
born. Shakespeare, of course,
gives all these prophecies to the
Weird Sisters, be they mortal or
supernatural.
In Night's Black Agents, his
book on witchcraft in 17th-century
drama, Anthony Harris observes:
"Thus Holinshed offers three
alternative identifications: the
creatures were either mortals
or goddesses of destiny or
fairies endowed with necromantic
powers.…Holinshed keeps his
options open still further by his
qualifying phrase 'as ye would say.'"
Attitudes toward Witchcraft
Sorcerer, witch, charmer, blesser, fairy—the
folk terms overlap in the popular mind of the
Renaissance. But once a person made a
pact with the devil, pledging his or her soul to
Hell, that person was a witch. Many were also
lumped under that label because they were
unattractive, aging, diseased, or held property
wanted by others.
In Europe the witch hunt grew to the level
of hysteria between the 14th and 17th centuries,
and millions of suspects were killed. Yet in
England between 1542 and 1736 fewer than
a thousand witches were executed. Clearly,
views of witchcraft differed in England and
Europe—with Scotland following the stronger,
more aggressive European Catholic attitude
toward witchcraft. On the continent, witchcraft
was prosecuted as heretical by ecclesiastical
courts, while in England it was a matter for
the civil courts. Nonetheless, it was widely
considered "a clear manifestation of the antiChrist, requiring the sternest measures to
eradicate it."
Laws against witchcraft in England
passed in 1542, 1563, and 1580; for all of
these the penalty was death only if the witch
killed someone. But under King James, the
law passed in 1604 (and in force until 1736)
stiffened the penalties. James himself had
written a tract on witchcraft, Daemonologie, in
1597, although his views mollified somewhat
later in his reign. As playwright to the King's
Men, Shakespeare would certainly have
known his monarch's concerns about witches.
A Renaissance woodcut of three
witches with their familiars
ASF 2013/13
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Portraying Weird Sisters or Witches
How much power the three "women"
have to shape events in Macbeth is a major
interpretive issue in the play. If they determine
destiny beyond a mortal's choice, then Macbeth
truly has no path but one. If they foresee or
prophesy the future, they may know but do not
cause events. If they feed the inner possibilities
of human desire, tempting and urging, they do
not make events happen; Macbeth has the
responsibility of choice.
The Weird Sisters in This Production
In ASF's 2013 production, the nature of
the Weird Sisters is affected by the world director Geoffrey Sherman has chosen for the
production. A post-apocalyptic world not only
challenges human life and values; it challenges
human relationship with the supernatural. Sherman observed, "if we don't
have gods, we make them
up." Thus the three Weird
Sisters will work more as
female shamans in this
production with power and
magic, but as to how much
influence they have over
Macbeth—that is for them
to know and the audience
to decide.
ASF witches 2004: Lauren Hendler,
Sonja Lanzaner, and Libby George
The witches in the 2004 ASF
Macbeth were diseased women,
outcasts from society, distrusted,
bitter, and perhaps prophetic. Among
their ailments, the most devastating
was leprosy. They opened the play
by severing fingers and hands and
frisking the dead bodies during the
battle.
Fans of Harry Potter
novels will recognize
the iconography of this
engraving by the Brothers
Dalziel from long before
Rowling—the slithering
snake brings on visions
of Nagini, the basilisk,
parseltongue, and Slitherin,
not to mention Satan
ASF witches 1997: Philip Pleasants, Laura McCord,
and Sonja Lanzaner
The 1997 ASF concept for the witches played
with the descriptive gender overlap in the text. Philip
Pleasants played an obviously pregnant female witch,
so his natural masculinity and assumed femininity
worked with Shakespeare's "you should be women,
but…" description.
What might the red glow suggest?
ASF 2013/14
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
RESOURCES
You Can YOUTUBE It!
All three production
mentioned have significant clips
available on YouTube.
There are at least 7 long
clips from the 1976 production,
totaling more than an hour.
There are also many clips
from the Polanski film.
The entire Goold/ Patrick
Stewart production is available
online through PBS at:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/
episodes/macbeth/watchthe-full-program/1030/
Lend them your ears… and
eyes!
The Royal Shakespeare
Company's "Explore"
website at:
http://www.rsc.org.uk/explore/
macbeth/
This site has design plans,
rehearsal photos, production
photos, some video, and
interviews with actors,
directors, and designers
from recent and famous
RSC productions.
The 2011 RSC Macbeth has
superb acting, gorgeous
design, and dead children
as witches!
The 2004 RSC Macbeth has
strong performances.
The 1976 RSC Macbeth is
one of the most renowned
productions of the play,
done in the RSC's small
theatre (like the ASF
Octagon) with open staging
which the television version
manages to maintain
brilliantly.
http://www.rsc.org.uk/explore/
macbeth/
Working with Modern Video Productions
Three of the best productions of Macbeth
available on video are:
1) Roman Polanski's 1971 film of
Macbeth, the first film he made after his
wife, Sharon Tate, and several others were
slaughtered in the "Helter Skelter" murders
by Charles Manson's cult. Set in 11th-century
Scotland, it stars Jon Finch and Francesca
Annis. (The sleepwalking scene is done nude,
but shot only from the rear; there is no frontal
nudity.)
2) the Royal Shakespeare Company
production directed by Trevor Nunn in 1976
and taped for television in 1979, starring Judi
Dench and Ian McKellen. It uses an open staging
with black and white costuming.
3) the 2010 film of the Rupert Goold stage
production starring Patrick Stewart and Kate
Fleetwood in a contemporary bunker setting.
Not only are all the performances stellar,
but the interpretations offer fine contrasts and
interpretive issues. All have challenging and
interesting Weird Sisters, exceptionally strong
leading roles, and superb production values. So
pick a scene or two OR a speech or two and
do some comparison.
DO NOT MISS:
• The opening sequence of the Polanski,
the first witches scene (which gets the
weather right), the 1.7, the murder of
Duncan (film can show everything), and
the last fight (plus the murder at Macduff's
recreates the Helter Skelter attack)
• The opening sequence of the RSC
production, Lady Macbeth's letter and
invocation of spirits scene (1.5), 2.1 and
2.2/ Duncan's murder (shot closeup),
Macbeth's 4.1 visit to the witches, the
sleepwalking scene (one of the most
famous Shakespeare scenes on screen),
and also a strong 4.3 in England
• The opening sequence and first scene of
the Goold, where you discover that the
witches are truly disturbing and spellbinding, the 2.1/2.2 murder of Duncan
Polanski's witches
Meet the Macbeths
Francesca Annis and Jon Finch in
Polanski's 1971 film
Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in the 1979
television film of the RSC production
Kate Fleetwood and Patrick Stewart in
Rupert Goold's 2010 film of his staged play;
below, Goold's witches
ASF 2013/15
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
From Star Trek to Macbeth:
Patrick Stewart on the Macbeth
Legend
Listen to actor Patrick
Stewart discuss the myth of
saying "Macbeth" on YouTube
at:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=K11gpDbOMx8
"Don't Say It!"—The Myth of Saying "M*cb*th"
Theatre folk love a good superstition as well
or better than most people; that in itself may
account for the long-lived tradition of M*cb*th
mishaps associated with the very mention of
"that play" in a theatre. Some will say that any
utterance of the name in any place by anyone
associated with any theatre will incur the wrath
of unknown but vengeful powers, while others
believe it is only if the title or a line from the play
itself is actually spoken in a dressing room or in
a theatre except during a performance.
For those who prefer to be more safe than
sorry, a ritual for dispelling the curse of the
spoken word usually includes leaving the room,
turning around three times, cursing (preferably in
a foreign language) or breaking wind or spitting
(sometimes all three), then knocking on the
door for permission to re-enter. Some add or
substitute the Hamlet line, "Angels and ministers
of grace defend us" (which Hamlet says upon
seeing the Ghost), as part of the remedy.
But why this play, this name, and no others?
Renaissance drama has its fill of witches
and demons, spells and incantations. Some
hypothesize that Shakespeare used a bit of real
verbal witchcraft in the play. Marlowe, it is said,
You said it!
Out—turn, spit,
curse! Now!
did the same in his play about magic, and, of
course, there is that nasty little story about the
Renaissance performance of his Dr. Faustus
in which an extra demon, one not in the acting
company, appeared on stage after Faustus's
invocation of the Devil.…
What happens if someone says it? The
most common anecdote (absolutely debunked
by all the scholars studying Renaissance acting
companies) is that one Hal Berridge, the boy
actor supposedly playing Lady M*cb*th for the
King's Men in 1606, came down with a deadly
illness during the first performance, a story often
attributed to John Aubrey. Other stage greats
who have M*cb*th disaster stories include Mrs.
Siddons, Stanislavski, Sybil Thorndyke, Dame
Judith Anderson, Paul Scofield, Orson Welles,
Charlton Heston, and Harold Norman, who died
a month after really being stabbed during the
play's last sword fight.
New York City's 1849 Astor Place theatre riot
(31 killed, 150 wounded) followed a production
in which the English actor Macready played
"the Thane." The Scottish play was Lincoln's
favorite; he was rereading it the night before
he was killed at Ford's Theatre.
During a production of "the Scottish play"
at the Old Vic in London in 1937, a stage weight
slammed into a backstage chair that Laurence
Olivier had just vacated. Also during that
production the director and the actress playing
Lady Macduff were in an auto wreck, and Lilian
Baylis, the theatre's doyenne, died during dress
rehearsals. Not even critics are exempt from the
curse, for Percy Hammond, who wrote unkindly
of Orson Welles' 1935 "voodoo" M*cb*th, fell
ill just after the company's drummers held a
special late night voodoo jam session; he died
some days later.
So while we suppose you are welcome
to ask for tickets using the actual title, if we
hear you mention "the Scottish play" by name
anywhere else, you'd better head for a door
and start the ritual, and we don't guarantee to
let you back in quickly!
ASF 2013/16
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Preliminary Design Work for ASF's 2013 Macbeth
ASF Resident Scenic Designer Peter Hicks
is already well underway making design choices
with director Geoffrey Sherman for Macbeth in
ASF's 2013 repertory season. It will be an open
stage production, in which space is suggestive
rather than realistic, in a post-apocalyptic world.
The basic design is a multi-level platform with
a flown element, and Hicks says, "The basic
inspiration for the abstraction is cracked glass,"
the perfect image for a shattered world. Such
a design throws the bulk of the definition of the
action back on the actors, a shift the design
team seeks.
One of set
designer Peter
Hicks's sketches
for the 2013
Macbeth set
Another of set
designer Peter
Hicks's sketches
for the 2013
Macbeth set
Thinking about Design
• What does "post-apocalyptic" mean to you?
What should it look like? What recent films
have explored the world that survives after
a great collapse of society? What does
that world look like? What do the humans
have and not have? What is familiar from
our "civilized" world and what is different?
• How might you choose to show a world in
extremis?
• Compare the effect of Peter Hicks's two
sketches below.
ASF 2013/16
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Play to Stage: Questions Pre-Show or Post-Show
Issue:
Macbeth's motivation
Things to Watch For:
• Is Macbeth a true hero at the beginning, or
is her already dangerous, too ambitious,
"fallen"?
• Are the witches' prophesies surprises or are
they reading his inner desires? Why does
he "start"?
• How much of a struggle is there between
good and bad within Macbeth? Does evil
win easily, or too easily?
• How does he react to the assassination, the
first misdeed? How does that compare to
his reactions to subsequent murders? Why
does he switch to using hired killers?
• What happens to his relationship with Lady
Macbeth? Does it change? Why?
• What is Macbeth's relationship with the
witches? Does it change? How?
• How does Macbeth face the last challenge,
the attack on his cstle? Is he courageous
or crazed or cynica;>
Lady Macbeth's motivation
• Have the Macbeths already discussed
"getting ahead in the world"? Or how to
do it?
• Is her response to the wtiches' prophecy
different in degree or kind than her
husband's?
• What is her reltaionship with Macbeth? Who
calls the shots when, how, why?
• Is she a kind of witch, or a woman who
wants the best for her husband, or…?
• Why does she insist the assassination be
done that very night? Why doesn't she
just kill Duncan herself (do we believe the
reasons she states)?
• When does Lady Macbeth show signs of
instability? How? What does that suggest?
The witches
• Who are the witches? Are they of this world
or the next? How do you know?
• What are the witches' powers?
• Are the witches a verbal presence
(altogether on the level or thought/idea) or
do they take a more active role? How does
that matter to or affect the action?
• What is the extend of the witches'
presence? What are the implications of
that?
• If the witches are ugly, malformed, diseased,
or disabled, how might that physical
image work with their figurative effect on
Macbeth?
Considering Design
• The previous ASF Macbeth
used a Stonehenge setting,
giant stone monoliths and a
stone floor. This production
moves to a post-apocalyptic
world—a shattered world as
seen in the image of shattered glass in the design.
How do we see the world
or the society shattered?
Do we see the characters
shattered?
ASF 2013/17
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Bloody daggers as engraved by
the Brothers Dalziel
Activities for ASF's Macbeth
ART
• Design-a-Witch or -Weird Sister
Make clear your interpretation of what
power the "three ladies" have by drawing or
making a poster collage or online assemblage
of images of who and what you believe they are
and what role they play in Macbeth. Choose a
brief sound track and present your audio-graphic
view to the class.
SCOTLAND
• Learn the Heritage
Explore the genesis and traditions of:
Alba/ Scotland/ Celtic culture in Britian
kilts
Pictish war paint
the Highlands and Lowlands
the clans
• Story-in-an-Image
— Create an image that tells the story of
Macbeth.
— Create an image that reveals Lady
Macbeth's character.
— Create an image that reveals the character
of Macbeth.
— Create an image that tells the story of Malcolm or Macduff or Scotland in this play.
• Debate Scotland vs. England
There is currently a move to declare
Scotland an independent country once more.
Research how and when Scotland became part
of Great Britain and debate whether it should
remain a part of that country or become an
independent nation. What is involved in deciding
that issue?
MUSIC
• Macbeth with a Musical Beat
If Macbeth were a musical or pop opera,
score the music (make suggestions for
style, beat, type of song, etc.) for Macbeth's
soliloquies, Lady Macbeth before the murder
and sleepwalking, Banquo's ghost, Macduff,
and the Weird Sisters. Who would sing the roles
in your musical?
VALUES
• Making Choices
Decide what loyalties are most important to
you—family, friends, group identity, faith, team,
nationality—and under what circumstances you
might find yourself having to choose between that
and something or someone you really want for
yourself. How do you make such a choice?
• The "Weird Sisters" of the World
Where do we meet the message that we
can have whatever we want, that we can have
our deepest dreams come true, no matter what
they are?
Advertising? You can have the car, the latest
look, the drug to make the pain or condition go
away, the newest techno-gadget; everyone has
one; don't you want it?
Peers? Go ahead, do it, try it, have some,
let me, join in.
Social media? "Like" it! "Unlike" it! Poke it or
slam it or post it or insult it or joke about it.
Does "having it all" come without cost?
• Royal Genealogy
James I claimed ancestry from Banquo.
What is the ancestry of the current royal family in
England? Does it have a Scottish ancestor? Why
are their summer holidays spent in Scotland?
DISCUSSION OR WRITING
• Mythic Patterns
Some critics argue that the story of Macbeth
and his wife parallels that of Adam and Eve as
they succumb to temptation and sacrifice their
basic allegiance to right or righteousness. Take
a stand on this issue and argue how it does or
does not work for the play.
What other stories and literary works you
know involve figures of fate that determine human lives and actions?
What other stories and literary works you
know involve temptation and leading people
astray?
How many stories involve those who are
successful going too far or getting careless or
indulgent and falling from their social/political/
personal height?
Consider which of these patterns best
expresses the pattern of Macbeth.
ASF 2013/18
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
2012-2013 SchoolFest Sponsors
Supported generously by the Roberts and Mildred Blount Foundation.
PRESENTING SPONSOR
Alabama Department of Education
SPONSORS
Alabama Power Foundation
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama
Hill Crest Foundation
CO-SPONSORS
Alagasco, an Energen Company
Robert R. Meyer Foundation
PARTNERS
AT&T
GKN Aerospace
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC
International Paper Company Foundation
Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation
Publix Super Markets Charities
Photo: Alamy
PATRONS
Central Alabama Community Foundation
Elmore County Community Foundation
Target
Photo: Haynes