One of the prophecies that the witches make in the first scene is that they would arrange to meet Macbeth indicating where they would meet him so of course it came true and in the very first act, Macbeth appears with Banqo and they happen to bump into the witches. The witches create circumstances that tempt him to indulge his ambitious nature.
The witches start to prophesy that Macbeth will become King which goes against the divine right of the King. The audience would see this as going against God which makes the audience despise the witches. Macbeth starts to think about what the witches are saying and he likes the sound of it. He orders them to tell him more but they vanish into thin air. This shows that they are supernatural and strange.
The witches’ appearance is very unnatural. Shakespeare describes them as “so withered and so wild in their attire” which really means old and untidy. Shakespeare states that they have a choppy finger which stands for chapped and rough as if they had been doing hard labour all day long. He also describes them as having skinny lips and beards which might mean that they are old ladies with quite a lot of facial hair. It could also be that they are really weird looking. It states that they look “not like the inhabitants of earth” which suggests there’s something that separates them apart from everyone else.
We are told that in the third scene the location is something of an open place described as a heath. A heath is like moor land with lots in hospitable and away from hyalinisation. Macbeth describes the heath as a “blasted heath” which means a very unpopulated place, not many people around this scene and therefore an ideal place for the witches to be, It is like their natural element thunder and lighting .The witches tend to make animal references quite a lot. As early as scene one Shakespeare has the witches using such references as “...I’ll thither sail, and like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do and I’ll do”. Shakespeare used this association of the witches with rats because at that time rats were the cause of deaths to thousands as they spread plagues everywhere. People hated rats even more then than they do now. So it was a very powerful statement when the witch compared herself to a rat. “She nurses the sailor so he can’t drink or sleep” this piece from Macbeth shows the witch as a very powerful being as she is able to stop a sailor from drinking and going to sleep. The funny side of this play must be that Shakespeare’s audience believed it all.
Having considered Shakespeare’s production of the witches in the text, I am now going to examine how these two scenes have been realized in the BBC production of the play.
The location of scene one is supposed to be an open and misty area like a moor land. The film concept of a moor land is right but not authentic enough. It’s a staged moor land, the scenery around it is just a painting it has no effect a tall. They should have staged it outside to make it real looking; it would have given it better effect.
The scene starts off with the camera focusing on the stone altar which symbolizes sacrifice and death. This altar consists of three boulders. Gradually these boulders change shape into the three witches which is very effective as it suggests that things are not quite how they seem. It also shows that the witches have supernatural powers.
The witches wear very dull clothes to match with the scenery surrounding them which camouflaged them. This shows that they like to be hidden from the world. It also gave an outward impression that they are dirty and unclean within. Their faces have a grey tinge to them which gives the impression that they are unearthly beings. It is significant also that grey is also a color which is linked with hate and death.
The director presents the witches as a sisterhood by focusing on only one of the witches to suggest she is the leader. The witches move simultaneously suggesting they are three people joined as a force of evil. They show they are a sister- hood by joining their hands together.
In the film Banqo refers to the witches as being withered and having beards but in actual fact they are not shown with beards and they don’t appear much withered.
The witches and in particular the main witch speak with great confidence and with assurance. This shows she knows what she is doing and she has done it before. Their voices also sound quite threatening and venomous.
The thunder and the wind howling in the first scene and third are very effective. There was a drum beat to show the importance of Macbeth’s arrival.
The lighting at the start of the play was very effective as they used a red effect to signify evil. It gives the impression that the play will have a lot of blood in it. After that however the lighting was less effective The lighting effect was just a spot light being switched on and off a few times.
The special effects in the film aren’t particularly that believable especially the mist as it looks really false.
The camera focuses in on the hands of the witches when they link together. The hands are extremely made up and huge and discolored but it is quite a disturbing sight.
Macbeth and Banqo looked very well dressed in the first scene despite the fact they had just come back from the battle field which is another fault in the film. Macbeth is tormented by evil in the third scene as the witches speak to him one at a time making him swing around to find the source of the voice. This tells the audience from the very start he is going to be controlled by evil.
Having watched the BBC production of the play my opinion of the version is it has its strengths and its weaknesses.
One of the strengths in the production is the altar at the start of scene 1. It was very good the way they tricked you into thinking that boulders where boulders when they were actually witches pretending to be boulders. This I thought was a brilliant tactic by the director as it showed the audience that things aren’t as they always seem. One of the weaknesses in the play was the failure to stage a realistic looking set; I thought the set was so poor it could have been used in a school play. The special effect was very ineffective as well as the lightning strikes.
Overall the BBC version of the play was good acting wise but the staging was very poor staged and the effects were very unrealistic. If I was the director I would have changed the staging and may be have directed it outside to give it a better effect. If I was going use lighting effects I would have made them more realistic
