Shakespeare uses three witches in his play rather than say five or six because three has always been thought of as the magic number and this signifies the supernatural and magical power the witches possess. In both scenes the witches stand around in a triangular formation. As a triangle has three sides and there are three witches it further develops the power and symbols of the supernatural society. In Shakespeare’s time witches were cast up to be frightening and horrifying creatures that the director had intended. It is becoming obvious to me that the witches’ role has been portrayed into Macbeth to introduce the themes of fate and destiny. This is used to unsettle the viewer and frighten them.
The description of the witches is tremendously alarming. They are hags in rags. They dress from top to bottom in old grey rags that are ripped all over. Their hair is misshapen and appears to have been like that for an extensive amount of time. It does not seem to have made contact with water and shampoo or even a brush for decades. Their faces and hands are exceedingly dirty and I feel absolutely disgusted, these witches were nauseating, which is still a word too clean to describe them. Their nails are long and black right the way through and their teeth are yellow, as if they have been stained by continuous exposure to tobacco smoke for many, many years. These three witches are the most disgusting thing I have seen in all my life. I feel that they are an insult to the human race. Although the appearance of the witches is quite disturbing it is essential to add to the atmosphere. The voices of the witches are husky and broken, almost like an old man’s. As they spoke I could easily imagine the three of them brewing potions. Their rhymed speech is ridiculous and comical to today’s society but in Shakespeare’s time it was threatening. To us it is like they are reciting nursery rhymes to a child.
“When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won”.
This is adding direct speech from the original text of when they will meet with Macbeth. Also as scene (i) came to an end the witches say,
“Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air”.
This contrasts with good and bad and is continuous throughout the play to relate back to the witches.
In Act 1 scene (iii) the setting is at the same place as scene (i). The three witches are kneeling on the dirty ground in a triangular formation. Again the symbol of three is emphasised. The camera slowly zooms in on the first witch, who is the predominant witch and she stands at the top of the triangle. I know she is the main witch as she speaks more frequently than the other two witches, in both scenes. We gain a better image of her being the most predominant as she shocks us by speaking of peculiar prophecies. At this stage the first witch loses some of her power in our minds by saying, “Though his bark cannot be lost”. This means that the witches can injure a human but have no power over killing anyone. Here we find her less threatening but she gains her strength back by revealing, “Here I have a pilot’s thumb”. At this exact moment comes a drum in the background, a symbol that Macbeth and Banquo are approaching.
Macbeth and Banquo’s introduction is in fact immediately after the drumbeat. The repetition of the phrase fair and foul is spoken by Macbeth himself as they enter the wasteland where the witches wait for him. Macbeth says this, meaning that the weather is bad but the winning of the battle was good. Macbeth was absolutely shocked by the sight of the witches standing before him. Banquo gives us a better insight to the witches’ appearance, “So wither’d and so wild”. We know now that even the other characters in Macbeth feel that they are not human, not only the director and the viewers. Their fingers are chapped, their lips are skinny. Banquo also says,
“You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret,
That you are so”.
After coming into contact with the witches the first words we hear from Macbeth are, “Speak if you can: what are you?” He is horrified by these appalling creatures. When the witches say his name and call him Thane of Cawdor and future king he is even more shocked. Fear comes over him. Banquo questions them as to whether or not they are imaginary. The strange prophecies have confused Macbeth. Banquo is unaffected by the witches, but Macbeth is stunned by their telling of the future. The witches timing seems to have more impact over Macbeth than the actual prophecies. The witches approach him when he is fresh from battle and very vulnerable. To Macbeth, these witches have an amazing amount of power, but to me they have very little, especially when they are only renewing thoughts that have crossed his mind before. These witches have only pushed him further to reach for his ambitions of being king and didn’t just make him king: their powers are not as real as they seem. When the witches disappear and Ross and Angus announce Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth asks them why they lie to him. Macbeth anticipates a major scene aside on the wonder and theme of kingship. His ambitions had been awakened. It is simple to realise what this production meant to me, I liked it a lot. I enjoyed watching it and it never ceased to amaze me.
The second version was the more modern version directed by Ann Ross Muir. The production is based to introduce evil rather than to show fright. It is untraditional and weird: the witches are the complete opposite to those of the BBC version. Ann Ross Muir attempted to create a production of Macbeth which would appear relevant to today’s society. In order to do this she had to decide on what she would include from the original text and what she would abolish. Her portrayal of the witches also had to be altered and she also had to change the scene setting as it would not be modern otherwise. It is necessary for the modern audience to be attracted to the play. She had to think of a way of making prediction and prophecy in a modern society’s way. The BBC’s version is directed at a completely different audience. The audience of Ann Ross Muir is an audience that does not believe in witchcraft, people in modern society feel that witches are fairytale characters and are only associated with dressing up as them on Halloween. Ann Ross Muir is not loyal to the original text of Macbeth as in order to portray the witches effectively to modern society she had to leave out certain details and add in other details to keep the reader’s attention.
In this version scene (i) is not set in a filthy, foggy heath but in an underground car park. In relation to the BBC version it is not a nice place and is isolated. This scene has no frightening landscape and does awaken much curiosity in the viewer. Ann remembered that the modern society would not be interested in a traditional setting so she left it out. However, the setting is unwelcoming, creepy and you might expect the supernatural- being to lurk around there. As the production is set underground a storm in the background would be unrealistic so Ann left those details out of her production and therefore, the weather images were not included in the modern version.
The physical description of the witches is entirely different to those of the BBC version. These witches are young and have normal, human-like features, unlike the witches in the other version, who look like dying old hags, and actually do look a bit like witches. Ann’s witches, however, are not like witches at all. Their face and hands are clean, and their hair is well styled. They wear so much jewellery and bright clothing that one would prefer to describe them as gypsies rather than witches. They have false nails, in the form of a French manicure (very modern). They have pictures of suns, moons and stars on their cheeks to reflect the supernatural world. These witches were made not to be scary, but weird and to introduce the theme of fate and destiny. In scene (i) the three witches all sit together around the star of evil and recite when and where they will meet with Macbeth. Tarot cards show they will meet at the wasteland with a warrior. Inside the star of evil are three masks like those you would see on posters for advertising a drama group/production. These masks are used to show some form of inhumanity. At the closing of scene (i) they are on roller skates going to see Macbeth, the fair and foul phrase is repeated again but this time it signifies that the witches are out to cause mayhem.
In Act 1 scene (iii) Macbeth and Banquo arrive in air force uniforms and come out of a helicopter. The witches are wearing their masks; to portray their side which is not human. Their roller skates enable them to circle Macbeth rapidly and they speak extremely fast to confuse Macbeth before revealing their prophecies. Circling Macbeth makes him uneasy as he cannot predict their next movement as they hail him. This is where the evidence of psychic powers is shown. The use of tarot cards make the witches a little bit more believable, but still I was not convinced. The “weird sisters” are no longer as frightening and atrocious as they were in the first version.
Overall I feel that Ann Ross Muir’s production was of very little dramatic impact as it was a little too modern. The setting, the witches or the speaking of the prophecies was not dramatic and had little effect on my mind. I was quite saddened by her production. The atmosphere was not anywhere near to that of the BBC version.
Sadly I feel that a modern version of this play is just not dramatic enough for any viewer to have much interest in. I feel that the BBC version of Macbeth had a more dramatic impact on the viewer and it was also more interesting to watch as the witches were scarier, the atmosphere was more upsetting to the mind and I personally feel that sticking to the original text is much more effective. The presentation of the witches was out of this world and they were everything I would have thought a witch to be when I was a little girl. Their meetings in gloomy and foul weather conditions show the real character of Macbeth; a dangerous man. The way the witches are presented is fabulous and the director has placed three outstanding characters in my mind I just know I will always remember.
