Brett's Review of Macbeth

I watched the Globe Theatre’s 2013 rendition of Macbeth.

As the play opened, I was very intrigued with the three witches. They don’t show their faces while chatting, and the lighting doesn’t make it under the hood of their cloaks, making their faces look like black, empty pits. Not only is this slightly terrifying, but it also makes it a surprise when they take off their hoods to talk to Macbeth. Suddenly, the three witches have faces to accompany their voices. The witches continued to be extremely strange as they are very physically interactive with Macbeth and each other. As they prophesy to him, they cling to his arms, legs, and torso in a somewhat frightful way. However, they are not so with Banquo, and do not come close to her. Once the witches leave Macbeth, they are also physically close with each other and cling together in a group as they exit the stage. I found this extremely interesting because I have never seen this behavior in a rendition of Macbeth, and it made the witches seem like one large creature, rather than three separate entities.

As mentioned above, Banquo is a female in this version of the play. Although she is played by a strong actress, I prefer a male actor because of the parallels between Macbeth and Banquo. With Banquo as a female, I was more prone to draw conclusions based on traits that are seen as more feminine or masculine. I was also intrigued by Banquo’s relationship with her daughter, because the mother-daughter relationship is very, very different from a father-son relationship. These gender differences also came into play with the role of Duncan, which was played by a female. Queen Duncan did not seem as strong of a character as I generally imagine, because the actress playing her looked sickly and petite compared to the other actors. Queen Duncan’s children, a male Donalbain and a female version of Malcolm, represent both mother-daughter relationships and mother-son relationships.

Another somewhat distracting addition to this play is the painting on many characters’ faces.  The interesting designs are slightly strange and look almost like ornamental makeup. Some were different colors, and maybe I don’t know the play well enough, but I couldn’t figure out if certain colors were grouped together for certain reasons, or if it was randomized.

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Kevin's Performance Review of "Macbeth"

I originally intended to attend King Lear in Salt Lake City, but after Professor Burton mercifully provided a much more convenient and less expensive alternative--viewing one of the Globe Theater's on-demand filmed performances--I decided to watch Macbeth, as I have previously read this work with a partner earlier in the semester.

In the comfort of the Harold B. Lee Library, I was able to sample a morsel of the famed Globe Theater's magic. While I'm certain it cannot compare to actually being in England, it was an enjoyable  experience nonetheless. Here are a few of my observations and attempts at analyzing this impressive performance:

1.) Character/performer analysis - The actor who starred as Macbeth played his role with great passion. He portrayed a mighty man racked with guilt for his heinous transgressions. He was literally sweating profusely at times, a large vein protruding from the side of his head, eyes red and bloodshot; in a heart-wrenching moment, after Lady Macbeth's death is announced, he weeps out of his love for her. Two more examples: he kissed his wife intensely after committing to their plans, but he nearly strangled her when the pressure mounts later on in the play (Lady Macbeth, in the following scene, has bruises all over her arms, neck, and face--quite alarming!). Everything he did was emotional, whether it me in movement, speech, or expression.

2.) Stage movement and effects - One of my favorite liberties the performers took was interacting with the crowd. My English 292 professor, Dr, Peter Leman, once related to us an experience he had while viewing a play at the Globe Theater (in fact, he got to lean on the stage while he watched!), specifically pointing out how excited he was when the cast members singled out members of the crowd when reciting lines or ran between them during action scenes. I looked for that, and I found that this cast, too, included the audience in the performance. They would point at individuals and run around on the ground area. One of the cool things about seeing it filmed was I got to see the delight it brought to the audience members faces when these interactions occurred. 

I liked how, in a dialouge-heavy play, the made sure to move the actors around the stage to keep up a feeling of progression. During one neatly designed scene, they had actors up in the balcony areas all around the circular theater shouting their lines. The effect it created made the whole stage seem to expand and be much bigger than it really is. The fight scenes weren't Jason Bourne-level by any stretch, but they were well-choreographed. 

The "special effect" I liked the most was the musical elements they brought into the story. They had drums to build intensity, violins to soothe, and knocking noises that effectively did its job of bugging the heck out of the listeners. I went back and viewed the script, and many of the musical insertions--including the Catholic chants and hymns during the coronation ceremony--were all experimental adaptations.

3.) Interpretation of script - The play was way funnier than I anticipated. After all, Macbeth is categorized as a tragedy. Even in serious moments, the actors would be rather humorous in their depictions of what was happening. I wonder if that was common in Shakespeare's time as well or if they just stuck to the script. 

In the script, it never has two characters talking simultaneously. However, they did during the performance. I was following along on my Kindle app while the play streamed, and I was fascinated to see how they broke up the dialouge--speeding up and slowing down--adding meaning. Because I was following along, I realized they did a scene out of order (they did Act 3 Scene 6 before Scene 5). I guess they thought it made more sense to do it this way because it wasn't out of necessity--it was right after intermission. 

This is supposed to be a "brief" analysis, so I better wrap things up. I liked it (although it got long in the middle with all the back and forth between Macduff and Malcolm), and I'd love to someday see one live in London.

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Sam's Ideas of Character Development in Macbeth

The character development in Macbeth was something that really interested me. The play features a lot of really fascinating characters that change as the play goes on, which is so interesting. If I was to write a paper on Macbeth, I think I would do something along the lines of researching character development in both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. I would like to be able to pinpoint the moment when they changed. Macbeth went from a rather cowardly but ambitious person to being bloodthirsty and absolutely fearless in the face of war. Lady Macbeth was the driving force, at first, behind her husband's ambitious murder spree, but she later snaps and is found sleepwalking and attempting to wring her hands clean. There is a really revealing line in act 5, scene 1, lines 37-42. She says "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 afeared? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have though the old man to have had so much blood in him?" She had mocked her husband's guilt and later, as shown in that scene, succumbed to an entirely more intense guilt of her own. It would be interesting to me to do a psychological analysis of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as both individuals and as a couple.
I would probably focus my research on psychological articles and use those to analyze the characters myself. I don't know what I would find, exactly, seeing as I'm not well-versed in the science of psychiatry, but it would be cool to be able to come up with my own conclusions about how, why, and when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth changed. It would be interesting to see what effect witches would have had on their mental state, how the lure of power might have pushed them over the edge, and perhaps what supporting characters such as Banquo or Macduff would have contributed to their changes. I think I would try to avoid articles already written about the mental state and character changes of Macbeth and his wife in order to try and formulate my own argument and not be heavily influenced by the arguments of scholars past and present. I'm sure there is so much that has been written on this subject before, so in order to keep it somewhat original, I would do my best to stay away from those articles.

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Macbeth: Rated B for Blood... Lots of It (Like, Really--People Die Left and Right)

Sam and I were assigned to read Shakespeare's Macbeth and discuss it on Slack. While our Slack conversation addressed/covered a wide range of topics relating to theme, plot, meter, and rhetorical devices, we talked quite a bit about Macbeth's rather complex character: he's so violent, but so remorseful; so logical, but sometimes so irrational; so heroic, but so doggone evil. "Stars, hide your fires;  / Let not light see my black and deep desires: / The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,/ Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see" (1.4.55-60). WHO IS THIS GUY?

Screenshot from my eBook--(1.7)

If I were to write a paper about Macbeth, I would want to explore his remorse--the instances where it almost seems like he is going to change and do the right thing... and then doesn't. I'd like to break down the different rhetorical moves in the text that influence his ultimate tragic downfall and see if there is some kind of pattern (i.e., I want to know which appeal--logical, emotional, credible--seems to work on him the most, thus helping me better understand his character). Some possible parts of scenes I could analyze are:

• (1.7) Macbeth's thoughts laying out logical reasons (logos) for why he shouldn't kill Duncan: he'd damn his soul to hell, it's not nice to kill guests, and Duncan is a pretty good guy. He decides he won't do it.
• (1.7) Lady Macbeth's attack on Macbeth's manhood (pathos) that drives him to change his mind.
• (1.7) Lady Macbeth's explanation (logos) of how they can frame the murder on the guards. This kind of seems to set him at ease. Not at ease, but not as stressed. Well, he is still stressed because he's about to commit cold-blooded murder... I don't know. In the end he still does it.
• (2.1) Macbeth has a vision of a bloody dagger that he claims is a representation of his dark thoughts (pathos/ethos?), possibly suggesting the murder is inevitable (or maybe it's a warning?). Either way, he goes through with it. 
• (2.2) Macbeth is disturbed by the fact he couldn't say "Amen." This is depicting his accountability to God (ethos) and causes him to comprehend the seriousness of his transgression, racking his soul (pathos). 
• (2.2) Lady Macbeth tells him not to think about his murders and it won't bother him as much (logos?). Yeah, good lucking sleeping with murder on your conscience... (But as far as we know, he does go back to bed... #somepeople)

That would be a great start, and there are tons more instances throughout the play that I could look at (such as when the ghost of Banquo pays him a visit). Heck, I could write a book on this. I would also analyze the form (iambic pentameter or prose) used to see if there is a connection regarding form and persuasiveness. Or is that too unrelated? I think I could tie it in. 

Types of research I would tie in are articles such as this one. It thoroughly explains the role of guilt/remorse and provides tons of solid examples. Some informal research could be this video from YouTube, or possibly this one (both from the Slack channel discussion). They show the dagger vision scene and how the vision impacts his decision.

What do you guys (well, girls and Chris, Garrett,and McKay) think? Suggestions?

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