Show how two different directors present the opening/witches scenes.

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Macbeth William Shakespeare

Show how two different directors present the opening/witches scenes.

We watched two different versions of Macbeth. One was the BBC Shakespeare and the other one was a production called Middle English! While both productions told the story of the original play by William Shakespeare they were different in a number of ways.

The BBC Shakespeare presents a traditional version of Macbeth. The director starts with a long shot of a bleak, empty landscape. As the camera zooms in it starts to focus on a granite platform with three objects lying on top. The rock-like platform is bathed in swirling mists and there is a greyish lighting used with occasional flashes of light to represent lighting. There are also loud percussion noises to represent thunder. This is because in Shakespeare's play the opening scene has stage directions for a storm and the first lines spoken by the witches also support this idea "When shall we three meet again in thunder, lighting, or in rain. As the camera goes in for a close up the mysterious shapes begin to move. Along with their slow movements they start to unfold and to rise and the music increases in volume and pitch as if reflecting the movement of the shapes.

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It soon becomes clear that these bundles of rags are in fact women. They are the weird sisters or witches in the play and they are shown in this version as old and ugly. The director has chosen to present them as unattractive and menacing and everything about this scene is threatening and ugly and makes the audience feel uncomfortable impact on the audience. The music is like funeral music loud and sad. The witches are old and ugly and dressed from head and faces are wrinkle and encrusted with dirt and warts. Their nails are yellowed and repulsive. Everything about them including their voices ...

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