I'm BACK!!!! Macbeth Act I.

So When I said I wasnt touching shrew in the New Year, i wasn't messing around. I actually had the 4th act written and was going to finish the final one New Year's Eve when I was hit with the flu so I was out of commision for almost two weeks straight. Totally gross. I hope you all had a healthier start to the new year. After the flu episode, we moved into a new place and were a bit slow setting up the wireless internet so now, finally, i'm ready to blog again and be more diligent with it! (Side note, i've also been busy rehearsing a show. If you're in the Phoenix area you can come see me in Picasso at the Lapin Agile. see www.brelby.com OR www.brelby.tix.com )

So....

We're going to move on to the next play I was exposed to: Macbeth. I figure I'm ok typing it regardless of any of you superstitious folks out there. If you're nervous about that just don't say it outloud right? I can't remember exactly when I read this play for the first time but I'm fairly sure it was at some point in highschool and I know I'd already read it and done some scene work from it by the time we covered it my senior year so I'm going to take a guess this is the next play, even though I could be mixing up the order of this one and Julius Ceasar (yup, that's what's coming up next... just quadurples my wish that I was watching the REN season in Staunton!)

So... this play is dark and awesome. Since first encountering it I have done scene work with it and a full length production that cut all the characters but the Macbeths and the 3 witches, with the three witches appearing as the other characters that spur the Macbeths on as well (this adaptation was called voices of Evil and was written by Prof. Rathburn ofNotre Dame University. It was very movement heavy and I absolutely loved it)

1.1

Y'all... this play starts with witches! How do you beat that?! "When shall we three meet again?" So not only do we start with witches, but witches who we know are coming back. rad. The first scene is super short and seems to just be an introduction to the supernatural. The scene eneds with the couplet

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair,

HOver through the fog and filthy air"

Fair is foul and foul is fair- this little riddle like phrase ties into what I think the theme of the play is, as well as one of the greatest lines- "Nothing is but what is not". SO. GOOD. I have that engraved on a keychain. It screws with your head in a really wonderful way.

1.2

Battle times: this scene starts with King Duncan asking "what bloody man is that?" oh duncan... you have no idea how bloody this play is going to get! When talking about the battle, its worth noting that fortune is compared to a rebel's whore. so that's fun. Basically this scene begins with a lot of praise for Macbeth and what a kickass solidier he is. One of my favorite parts of the sargeants's description/lines is after going on and on about macbeth he says "But I am faint, my gashes cry for help" so only after these long descriptions does he give into how much he's bleeding instead of getting a doctor right away! Hardcore. Lots of playable things there right? The scene finishes with the information that the Thane of Cawdor is as good as dead sicne he was a traitor, (hmmm... Cawdor and Gloucester dont seem like great places to rule...) and Macbeth is going to inherit his title. Dear god I hope any production hammers this home because it makes the witches scene that comes next so much better.

1.3

Remember when we talked about the idea that maybe Puck is a little more demon like than we usually see him portrayed? I'm a little more convinced after thinking how similar the witches' pranks are to the sprightly hobgoblin's. Only these bitches be way scarier than Puck. Teaching moment: I think I would LOVe to do a whole class on how you choose to portray witches for any given production. Macbeth describes them as "so withered and so wild in their attire" and later says "you should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret" Is Macbeth seeing things? is that what the audience sees? There seem to be an awful lot of productions ive seen with "sexy" witches- what's up with that? So the witches reference that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and then King hereafter. Banquo wants to know whats up with the Macbeth's reactions to this news- this is a GREAT play to teach internal stage directions. SO SO SO WONDERFUL.Another wonderful thing to teach/ practice/discuss with this play is stage magic. Do the witches disappear? how? do they stay but become invisible? lots of really fun choices!!!

Banquo is not scared of these witches and says "speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear/ your favors nor your hate"

Then Ross comes onstage to announce the outcomes of battles and that macbeth is indeed now Thane of Cawdor and even though we knew he was before he talked with the Witches, Macbeth didn't so it can seem to him that perhaps they have played a part in it and that they have something on which to build infallible prophecies... then, what I absolutely LOVE about this scene is that what really should be a soliloquy- Macbeth is struggling with a decision, clearly talking to the audeince/himself depending on how you view such monologues- is NOT a soliloquy but done while banquo and ross are still onstage.

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 less than horrible imaginings:

My thought, whose murder yet is butfantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man thatfunction

Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is

But what is not.

and after all this, Banquo and Ross comment on how weird he is that Macbeth's off by himself and call for his attention. That makes the situation so much better than if Macbeth was onstage alone! as well as giving us some much needed humor amongst all the talk of murder.

I have to share my favorite Maccers cartoon here:

1.4

I always think of this play as being so short (and it really is!) that I forget/am always surprised by how many little scenes make up this little bloody drama...

Duncan and Macbeth and Banquo meet up and talk about how awesome each other tends to be... I love the images of planting and growing and harvest. If you think about it those tend to be quite feminine images, right? images for bearing children? And what do you know shortly thereafter Macbeth mentions his wife and how he needs to bring the news of what happened to her. This scene also wins a shout out from Mumford and Sons "Stars, hide your fires..." Again, Macbeth does this ruminating over his dark desires WHILE THE KING AND HIS BUDDY BANQUO ARE ON STAGE! so. good.

1.5

This scene begins with Lady Macbeth reading a letter. this is our first introduction to her. I feel like this is rough for an actor. your first moments onstage reading someone else's words but we all know odds are yoru director wont let you read them because what if there's a prop malfunction, etc. and we're all a little uncomfortable if it looks like the person onstage is truly reading (or are we? textual culture discussion, GO!) But then to make up for it, the next thing Lady M gets is this:

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promis’d. 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 playfalse,

And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’ldst 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 impedes thee from the goldenround,

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

To have thee crown’d withal.

And thats a good amount of speech all together/time onstage for a female part. (rejoice b/c there are some nice chunks or be depressed that there are so many long male speeches?!) This is definitely a piece I would want to work on and/or teach in a class. I feel like it is full/beautiful/interesting like the Unsex me here speech but doesnt get any love or attention. The gender stuff in this play is SO GOOD. She says her husband is too full of milk. WHY DON'T MORE PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THIS SPEECH?! This scene is basically a giant lady macbeth awesome fest.

Like this:

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.   THIS SPEECH IS SO SEXY!!!! OK... moving on... 1.6

A baby scene- Duncan arrives and talks about how pleasant and great and sweet the air and the castle seems. AHAHAH dramatic irony. everyone loves dramatic irony.

There's a lot of emphasis on Lady M being their great hostess. Breaking the rule of hospitality comign up over and over again

I love that Lady M's response is "All our service in every point twice done, and then done double"

I'd be interested to do a word count on host/hostess/guest/etc. in this play because serioudly this whole scene is to emphasize this kind of relationship.

1.7

OH MY GOODNESS i forgot this scene came in Act 1. Unlike how endless the scenes in R&J felt... THIS PLAY IS NONSTOP ACTION!!!!

This starts with one of Macbeth's famous soliloqueys. If it were done, when tis done...

The thing I love about this play is that I genuinely can't decide which part I'd rather play more- Macbeth or Lady Macbeth, and that kind of conundrum doesnt happen often!

Anyway... so this is the part where Macbeth shows some beautiful doubt in what he and lady M have decided to do, what with the whole murder plot and everything. there's a lot of beautiful language and imagery here. ADD THIS speech to the list of things I should teach a class about...

we continue with the weird baby images for one. "pity like a new-born babe"- such an interesting image choice.

So it sounds like Macbeth is going to cave when in comes his wife wondering why he's been gone so long. Macbeth tells her he's shutting this plan down and then all hell breaks loose. Lady M is PISSED. She wants to be QUEEEN DAMN IT! but what is even more compelling is that she attacks not with that desire, but with the fact that her husband, her sworn partner in life, is breaking his promise to her. Some of you may think this is just a tactic, but I think there's a true sense of betrayal and that things would have been different if Macbeth had said no from the start, even after her unsex me prayer and her determination to get him to say yes. I think it would be interesting to play Lady M with the intention that it is worse to commit treason against your wife than against your king. and some interesting religious perspectives to explore in that choice as well.

The baby images really come to a forefront in Lady M's speech about dashing her nursing infant's head. Lots of interesting actor work/clues in this speech as well.

AGAIN this scene is SO SEXY. and in my opinion, nothing kills this story faster than having a couple without this sexual tension/power. I've seen productions that focus on the emasculation of Macbeth to the point that Lady M is just a steamroller and I think that is SUCH A BORING CHOICE. and not supported by the text. this man is a strong soldier and having a strong wife does not make him less strong. The bring forth male children only is such a sad, strange, and awesome line. Children Children Children are the driving force of this play. and no matter how sexy and strong and loving the macbeths are amidst their crazy regicidal plans... nothing will give them those children they continually speak about.

Act 2 coming soon. It feels good to blog again :)