Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Macbeth Act 4: Shakespeare knew how to write some devestation..

4.1
MORE WITCHES! This is the money scene for the witches.
How awesome are those sounds and images?! This is also the famoud double double toil and trouble scene with all kinds of nasty things the witches are putting in their spell. OSF once cut this scene (or perhaps it was just that specific double double toil and trouble refrain... I didnt get to see the actual show) and people were up in arms about it. This is clearly a rad scene to use for classes. and for teaching imagery.
hardcore.
Hecate comes back again and unlike last time Hecate is not pissed but very pleased with the wyrd sisters.
Then my favorite line of the scene:
Just say those lines over and over again. the SOUNDS are SO AMAZING. I think Open locks whoever knocks is my new vocal warm up. who's with me?!
Enter Macbeth. of course. When he asks them what they are doing they reply: a deed without a name. Fits kind of perfectly into the whole nothing is but what is not theme... I also want to file this scene away into the activities with choral speaking file. the choices with unison speech are so interesting to me.
The apparitions and how to execute them is also a great performance text vs. written text exercize. how do you show these terrifying images? armored head, bloody child, a crowned child with a tree in his hand... I could spend hours on this scene.
another basis for a vocal warm up:
Then after the three spirits, there's the procession of kings including the ghost of banquo. Another staging conundrum especially if you are using a smaller cast to do this show. but again, so many choices and cool ideas to execute here.
oh, let's add this line to our B warm up:
As Macbeth stands in horror, the witches start singing and dancing with Hecate- thanks Middleton for the borrowed music!
then the witches vanish leaving Macbeth alone.. but not for long as Lennox comes onstage and warns Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth's response, even though he knows he has nothing to fear until a freaking forest comes to him?
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;
This deed I'll do before this purpose cool.
Which leads us to what I think is one of the darkest scenes in Shakespeare (though there are some STRONG contenders for absolute darkest... I will at least stand strong that for me this is the darkest scene in the play...)
4.2
Lady Macduff is a one scene gold mine.
The scene opens with her telling Ross of her frustration with Macduff's flight. She refuses to be told to maintain patience and she says when our actions do not/ Our fears do make us traitors a theme which we'll get back to when we get to Measure for Measure. speaking of the word traitors, Ross responds with this glorious phrase:
yes. just... yes. as someone who has known a great deal of anxiety at various times, those lines just hit home.
What kills me is that Ross, knowing everything is clearly really bad here, just peaces out. Leaving Lady Macduff and her son.
Little Macduff is SMART y'all. As most shakespearean children seem to be... cheeky and apt. The traitor talk continues with this exchange:
POOR MONKEY! remind me to use this nickname because I LOVE IT. Also, there is a lot of this kind of reasoning over the majority vs the minority that are in power and the good vs. the bad. it never ceases to simultaneously amuse and depress me.
A messenger enters this mother son time and warns them to escape the danger coming towards them, and Lady macduff's answer is heartbreaking: Whither should I fly? no. escape. Whither should I fly... shattering. And then the murderers enter and kill little Macduff in front of his mother. and the scene ends with them chasing after Lady macduff (in some stagings you certainly see them kill her too... again, this show must be a fight choreographer's dream...)
4.3
Curioser and curioser thought alice... ok, this scene boggles my mind every time. Shakespeare seems obsessed with very strange tricks and tests of loyalty... Basically Macduff tries to get Malcolm to rally with him to save their poor bleeding Scotland. Malcolm wants to know if Macduff will want him as king when he sees how lustful he is... Macduff seems fine with that and assumes that plenty of ladies will want to sex it up with the king. Malcolm then says he has avarice as a constant sin... Macduff tries to stretch this to be a possible good quality but you can see him faltering... Malcolm lists a bunch of other vices, macduff goes on a tare about how his one hope is gone and he'll live in exile and how he doesnt understand how malcolm could be the son of his parents who were so good... Malcolm then more or less says: just kidding. I was testing you. good golly, I'm still a virgin... good to know you care about morals though... then there's this genius comedic moment to end this discussion:
Then a doctor enters, says one line, then exits- i feel like this and the description of his healing works is cut in most productiong i've seen. Then Ross comes in and has the speech that convinces me that Ross is the much better part than Malcolm or Macduff
THAT TEXT IS AMAZEBALLS. I'm sorry I can't put it more elegantly but seriously. It recaps so many sounds and themes we've encountered in this play and it is so visceral and sad and frustrated and immediate. BEAUTIFUL.
and what comes next is even more amazing and painful for an actor- things that are hard to say are so often the most amazing things to watch on stage. and this exchange is a prime example:
MACDUFF
How does my wife?
ROSS
Why, well.
MACDUFF
And all my children?
ROSS
Well too.
MACDUFF
The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace?
ROSS
No; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em.
MACDUFF
But not a niggard of your speech: how goes't?
ROSS
When I came hither to transport the tidings,
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour
Of many worthy fellows that were out;
Which was to my belief witness'd the rather,
For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot:
Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland
Would create soldiers, make our women fight,
To doff their dire distresses.
MALCOLM
Be't their comfort
We are coming thither: gracious England hath
Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men;
An older and a better soldier none
That Christendom gives out.
ROSS
Would I could answer
This comfort with the like! But I have words
That would be howl'd out in the desert air,
Where hearing should not latch them.
MACDUFF
What concern they?
The general cause? or is it a fee-grief
Due to some single breast?
ROSS
No mind that's honest
But in it shares some woe; though the main part
Pertains to you alone.
MACDUFF
If it be mine,
Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.
ROSS
Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever,
Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
That ever yet they heard.
MACDUFF
Hum! I guess at it.
ROSS
Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes
Savagely slaughter'd:
So. Painful. The way he tries to avoid the subject by equivocating how his wife is (R&J flashback right? then she is well and nothing can be ill...)  then changing the subject to the need for Macduff to rally the people, and finally coming back to what he must say... and, even once Macduff can guess what it is- having to put it plainly and he seems to want to get those words out as directly as possible to finally be done with it. Just thinking about this scene makes me cry. But it doesn't end there! oh god...
I love moments onstage where silence is called for in the script. and Macduff's silence followed by his confirming that what he heard is true gives me chills. Also, I am with the characters who over and over again tell us that if you remain silent about your agony/sorrow/heartbreak you will be destroyed. that you must speak. man.. this scene just gets me. Maybe I'm even more emotional about it now that I understand a big more the devestation I would feel at losing my spouse. and I feel so bad for Ross and his finally responding with "I have said". And macduff still can't register that. Malcolm tries to move him along the stages fo grief into anger and tries to rally for revenge and Macduff's answer is:
I have a peer who thinks that this is a moment in Shakespeare's plays where he shows a "good guy" who is pro-child killing. Who wishes he could kill Macbeth's kids to even the revenge field. But I think It just means that Macbeth could never possibly grieve the way he is now. Not that Macduff would automatically be rallied up by the prospect of becoming a child killer. There's a lot of interesting discussion next about what the "manly" way to deal with such news is.
Thoughts on whether this is a healthy model? Men can feel sorrow/cry but only if they are also going to kick some ass? Good that it at least shows some emotion other than rage? Horrible to encourage the conversion of grief to anger?
And that's the end of Act 4. brace yourself. act 5 has a lot of scenes. until then...
PS: I have no idea why some of my text became hyperlinked falsely or why it turned a different color... let's blame the Wyrd sisters..
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