My Macbeth vs Tempest experience

I had two very different experiences last weekend.  I saw Macbeth in a small amphitheater, and The Tempest in a large venue at the University of Utah.  The actors in the Macbeth performance were dedicated to getting the audience involved; to them audience involvement was an integral part of their experience and what they wanted for us as well.  The Tempest up at the U had a much different scope in mind.  They were much more elaborate with set and stage direction.  The set was a main stage surrounded by a three story set.  As you can see in the picture, a huge focus of The Tempest was spectacle.

I was able to have two conversations with Macbeth, one before the performance and one after.  Before they began, the actors in the play spent time walking around and talking to members of the audience; they spent time laying the foundation for what they "expected" of us as an audience.  They wanted us to be a part of that evenings performance.  To the right is man who played Macbeth.  They had their final performance on Halloween night at midnight; I hope some of you were able to go see it.  I imagine that could have been their best performance.

I was wondering how they were going to pull off a few of the scenes with such a simple set.  On the left is a picture of their stage that they set up wherever they are performing.  In our case, they set it up in a amphitheater that felt like a castle.  It was quite perfect actually.  There are several features to this simple stage that allow for a surprising amount of variation.  1-there are three levels; the ground level, the stage and the ladders.  2-there are two trap doors in the floor allowing for some clever entrances and exits and intense scenes.  3-you'll notice that the back drop is a whit sheet.  This allows them to project shadows onto the sheet; they can do a scene that is behind the scenes.  4-there are three slits cut in the sheet for more options in their stage direction/exits; one is in the middle of the stage, and the other two are in the middle of the ladders.

In my conversation with Macbeth before the performance I asked him a few questions; I was wondering how they were going to pull off the scene when Macbeth is debating within himself as to whether or not he is going to kill King Duncan.  In that scene, Macbeth hallucinates as he sees a dagger in the air.  It's an eery scene because of what he is contemplating, and for how he responds to the intangible dagger.  The Macbeth I spoke to said that they would project the shadow of a dagger onto the sheet; he said that they had debated as to how they would do that.  They have no director, because that's how it was done in Shakespeare's day, and so just work things out amongst themselves.

I also asked him about his character; "What was it like for you to portray a character like that?"  "How do you manage to portray a good sane man who goes crazy?"  He stopped me there because he had a different perspective on his character.  He said that his interpretation of Macbeth was that he was driven by fear.  It was not so much that he just went crazy, but that it was the intensity of the fear that Macbeth laid upon himself that drove him to all of the murderous acts he did following his murder of King Duncan.

To bring this back to The Tempest, I have an observation that seems to me a stark contrast to stage performances of our day compared to Shakespeare's day.  It seems to me that it is typical for the people our day to view a stage performance more like a movie than they realize; come to be entertained. From my experience at the Macbeth venue, it seemed that a member of the audience came to be a part of the performance.  Or at least that was what the members of the cast were trying to help us do; to them they were trying to change our mindset of our role as members of the audience.  In a sentence, a member of the audience goes to a performance to be a part of the play, and to have influence on the characterization of the players on the stage.

Both performances were wonderful, but I liked the involvement, and the influence we could have on the actors on the stage, and how they responded to us. 


    

Clarifying the thread before we trace it deeper into the play...

First I would like to clarify the foundation for the theme which I have been exploring.  There are two phases to this theme.  The first phase is irony and the second phase is the evidence for this irony.  Earlier I said that we would be tracing a thread of irony throughout the play; I think it more accurate to say that we'll be tracing the evidence of an ironic relationship.  So the valuable thread to follow throughout this play comes from the irony seen when we compare two sets of relationships:

You can follow the flow of the king's "absolute trust"
(if this is hard to read, you can click on it to see it full size)

You'll notice that there is a "thread" around the border of the image.  This is what I will be exploring deeper in later posts.  This thread is the echoing evidence of the shattered relationship between Macbeth and King Duncan; it is Macbeth feasting, till his death, on the king's words: "There's no art to find the minds construction in the face."    

The thread of irony found throughout Macbeth

At the beginning of the play, we immediately find ourselves in the aftermath of a heated battle.  A messenger returns to King Duncan to report on the events and outcome of the battle.  He speaks of Macbeth as a hero; a man who, when betrayed my the King of Scotland--to whom they should have been able to look to for aid, had unconquerable bravery.  Here is part of that exchange:

Messenger:  With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men began a fresh assault   

Duncan:  Dismay'd not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Messenger:  Yes, as sparrows, eagles, or the hare, the lion.  If I say [truth] I must report they were as cannons over-charg'd with double cracks; so they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. 

This is the Macbeth that King Duncan saw; he saw the eagle and the lion.  But just as he could not see the treachery in the King of Scotland until after it was too late for any preemptive measures, so it is with Macbeth.  

After the battle was won, King Duncan had the King of Scotland executed for his treason.  You can feel his remorse in having been wounded by one on whom he had built an "absolute trust"; and it is from King Duncan's comments on this situation that I would like to begin the thread of irony found throughout Macbeth.        

"There's no art to find the mind's construction on the face," (Act 1, Sc 4, 11-12).  The principle from this line stayed with me throughout the entire play.  It was interesting to see how Macbeth tried to hide under the persona of the "Brave Macbeth..." who used to deserve that name, (Act 1, Sc 2, 16).

There are interesting quotes throughout the play that have a strong connection to this foreshadowing comment by King Duncan.  The irony is found in a couple of ways.  1--King Duncan does not learn the art of finding the mind's construction on the face  2--Macbeth does not learn the art of hiding the mind's construction on the face, though he eventually ceases to bother when he becomes the hardened Macbeth of Acts IV and V.  

Quote 1 is from an exchange of Lady Macbeth to Macbeth:

Lady Macbeth:  Your face, my than, 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.

Quote 2 is the final conversation between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth before the murder of the King:

Macbeth:  Will it not be receiv'd 

When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two

Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers,

That they have done't?  

Lady Macbeth:  Who dares receive it other, 

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar 

upon his death?  

Macbeth:  Away, and mock the time with fairest show,

False face must hid what the false heart doth know.

These episodes from the beginning of Macbeth are laying the foundation for a theme that I would like to explore more deeply.

Before I launch into further depth, does the platform from which I plan to build off of make sense to you?   

   

"A drum, a drum; Macbeth doth come."

MACBETH DID COME, BUT 
WAS ALSO OVERCOME...

This play is incredible; the transformation of the Macbeth from a good man to a tyrant without an ounce of sympathy or compassion was masterfully written.  The Changes in Macbeth are in interesting contrast to Lady Macbeth, who was immediately drunk with ambition for she and her husband's potential for position and power.  She waned from a full moon of ambition and murderous desire, to nothing more than a sliver of a miserable wretch.  Shakespeare did an amazing job of capturing their stepwise transformations, and made it not only believable but heart wrenching as well.  A true tragedy.

INCREDIBLE MOMENTS AND GREAT LINES...

The Three Weird Sisters

"When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

  

When the hurly-burly's done, 

When the battle's lost, and won"

(Act 1, Sc 1, 1-4)

This is a great line because it shows that these three witches don't care at all about the events that they have influence over.  Usually when we talk about an event, where something is in the balance for us, it comes out in our words what we want to have happen.  The weird sisters don't care about the battle, but when someone has lost, and someone has won, they will meet again.  

The Noble Banquo

But 'tis strange, and oftentimes,

to win us to our harm, the 

instruments of darkness tell us 

truths; Win us with honest trifles,

to betray's in deepest consequence.

Banquo was a good man, who did not let the ambition that destroyed Macbeth enter into his heart.  In my opinion this is one of the most profound lines in the play.  Don't be won with honest trifles.    

Prophecy for Banquo

Do you remember how James I of England is of the real Banquo's line?  So there's a connection Shakespeare made for James I to feel included in the plot of the play.  The Weird Sisters said to Banquo "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.  So all hail Macbeth and Banquo," (Act 1, Sc 3, 65-66).  James I is one of those kings.  

King Duncan laying for foundation for a major theme

"There's no art to find the mind's construction on the face," (Act 1, Sc 4, 11-12).  The principle from this line stayed with me throughout the entire play.  It was interesting to see how Macbeth tried to hide under the persona of the "Brave Macbeth..." who used to deserve that name, (Act 1, Sc 2, 16).

Macbeth with a tortured mind 

"Whence is that knocking?!!!  How is't with me, when every noise appalls me," (Act 2, Sc 2, 61); and "Full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!" (Act 3, Sc 2, 36).  We find Macbeth unable to find any rest or reprieve from the unquenchable guilt and anxiety he feels.  The only way to get rid of such feelings when he's done what he's done is to not care, and become a ruthless, merciless, brutal man, with not trace of kindness, sympathy or compassion.  This is what he does.  

Lady Macduff without her husband

In a nearby castle, we find the wife, child and household of Macduff, a man Macbeth fears will oppose him.  It is a very sad scene that ends in a massacre.  Lady Macduff was left to wonder why her husband left her alone and defenseless; he left to find a way to remove the iron-fisted tyrant that threatened his family and country.  In her extremity Lady Macduff said:  "What had he done, to make him fly the land?... His flight was madness.  When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors," (Act 4, Sc 2, 1-4).  It tears your heart out to know more than the characters, and feel the pain they are in.       

The hardened Macbeth 

Macbeth has become that man who no longer feels; he has displaced those scorpions with ever more terrible deeds.  As Macduff and his companions march to remove Macbeth from his position, it was said, "Those he commands, move only in command, nothing in love.  How does he feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief," (Act 5, Sc 2, 19-22).  Macbeth dies friendless and alone.    

Some last thoughts...

Macbeth------------------------------------------regular people

As we continue to read "many things," from among "the best books," there should be opportunity to liken some Shakespeare unto us for personal learning, (1 Nephi 19:23; D&C 109:7).  

The figure above is an example of similar triangles.  A triangle is similar to another when its angles are identical but the lengths of the sides are of different magnitudes.  The connection between Macbeth and regular people is this:  we should be careful of the direction our actions point us, and never dismiss wrong choices as tolerable just because they are smaller in magnitude.  We should be very careful of what we choose to similar too.    

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"

-Lady Macbeth

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies.  The background history for the play is quite interesting.  Queen Elizabeth I of England named James VI of Scotland as her heir, and so he became King James I of England.  He had this play performed in London while he entertained King Christian, who had married his sister.  Something that is probably little known about about Macbeth--it is nearly considered one of Shakespeare's historical plays.  One of the noble characters of the play, Banquo, was not so noble in real life.  But because James I was a descendant of Banquo, he was not portrayed as one of the conspirators who killed King Duncan.  The touchy subject of who actually killed who historically kept Macbeth classified as just a "moral lesson" and a tragedy.  

There are many renditions of Macbeth, I even watched "Macbeth in 96 Seconds" on youtube.  There's is definitely a sense of intensity and gore associated with this play.  I've started to watch one full length version of one that I found, and there is a fairly dark feel to it.  I think I am going to try listening to one of the acts as well to see how that changes my perception of the intensity, gore and dark nature of the play.         

A major theme from the play...

While previewing the text and reading the first 3 or so acts of Macbeth, I have become interested in what seems to me one of the most important themes of the play; more to come on what happens to the wolf in the sheep's clothing...