In the Royal Shakespeare Company Production the actors who are idle sit in a circle and the performing actors act in the middle. This would not be possible in a theatre, as the surrounding actors would block the audience’s vision. This is, however, possible on television as they have a spotlight shining on the actors performing and the idle actors are in complete darkness. This adds to the brilliance of the production as when Lady Macbeth, for example, comes on stage, dressed in black, she emerges from complete darkness, showing the evil on her. However, when we see Duncan, he is always wearing white and is surrounded by light, and you can see the light on anyone near him, as if to show he radiates light.
Lady Macbeth uses language to invoke darkness; she brings the evil to herself. This is a lot easier to show on television than in a theatre. The Royal Shakespeare Company Production has the light fading away until all you can see is absolute darkness. This is not possible in the theatre.
The advantage of having the ability to close up on actors on television is essential to this play. When Macbeth sweats then that is only visible on television, not in the theatre. The Royal Shakespeare Company Production show Macbeth’s hand covered in blood, and as if it is disembodied, that is not necessarily what Shakespeare intended but now that there is the option of showing that to the audience the Royal Shakespeare Company Production decided to put that in. On television it is also possible to focus on some things and to blur other things, for example, in the Royal Shakespeare Company Production we see Macbeth’s face taking up half the screen and the messengers talking between themselves in the distant background.
When it comes to actors thinking to themselves, in the theatre they would stand facing the audience and talk out loud and the other actors would pretend not to hear him, the Royal Shakespeare Company Production does it in a similar way. On a Version by Anthony Sher of Macbeth it shows the actor staying still with his mouth closed yet you can hear a recording of his voice. Although this is not possible to be done in the theatre, I prefer the way it is done there, and on the Royal Shakespeare Company Production.
In the 1970s they made films with violence in slow motion, showing the bullet entering the heart in slow motion. This was done because the modern audience want violence they do not find the language satisfactory. In Shakespeare’s time they found the language sufficient because it was not possible to show that kind of violence in the theatre.
In the scene of Banquo’s ghost Shakespeare wanted there to be an actor acting as a ghost. We find this in the text, enter ghost. The Royal Shakespeare Company Production, however, decides that it is better to have an imaginary ghost instead. This was done because on television the acting is of a higher standard, as you can see the actors very clearly, so the Royal Shakespeare Company Production decided that it would be better for the audience to concentrate on Macbeth and not the ghost. The Version by Anthony Sher, however, decided to show the ghost come on. They did this in response to the thirst for violence in the modern society. They made it look scary as opposed to meaningful.
The music is extremely powerful in this production. For example at Macbeth’s coronation they had special music of coronation. I don’t know whether they had music in the theatre or not. When Lady Macbeth emerges from the darkness there is spooky music.
The lighting is also very powerful. For example, with Macbeth’s coronation there is no light as there was with Duncan. Towards the end of the film the Royal Shakespeare Company Production’s director wanted to show how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were separated. He did this by only having one face fully focused and light at a time. This would not be possible in the theatre as the audience can focus on what they want to. The lighting when they were in Britain was not so murky. This would also not be possible in the theatre.
The actors in the theatre would have to shout in order for the audience to hear them. This takes away from the emotion that they would normally have in their voice. On television the actors can speak as quietly as they want because they use microphones that allow the volume to be changed.
The Royal Shakespeare Company Production sticks more to the text of Shakespeare. Whilst the Hollywood version sticks with what the modern audience is interested, violence and romance, trying to compete with other violent films, for example, Men in Black, and The Terminator.
The main disadvantage of television is that you see the play according to the interpretation of the director, whilst in my opinion, Shakespeare’s plays are meant to be open to different interpretations.
The Royal Shakespeare Company Production does not try to satisfy the modern audiences need for violence, rather they stick to the traditional Shakespeare’s text. The Hollywood production does the opposite. It is very interesting that I, as well as the majority of the people who I have asked find the Royal Shakespeare Company Production a lot better. This is because the Hollywood production doesn’t show the true meaning of Shakespeare’s words; they change a lot of the text and add in bits.
Have you ever heard of someone paying to go into the theatre to watch a play and then leave after five minutes? Well now with television, people start watching a play or film and after two minutes, if they find it boring would switch to another program. Therefore the director has to make sure that the audience would want to watch it, whereas in a theatre once a person has paid, it is likely that he will stay to the end, so the director can have a boring beginning and the exiting bits could be at the end without fear of loosing his audience.
I am going to look at the Banquet seen of both productions, the Royal Shakespeare Production and the Hollywood version. Firstly in the Hollywood version the ghost only comes on once whereas in Shakespeare’s text it comes on twice, this is done in the Royal Shakespeare Production. In the Hollywood version the ghost is actually shown on stage not just imaginary as is shown in the Royal Shakespeare Production Shakespeare actually intended a ghost to be shown. This is quite unusual as the Royal Shakespeare Production usually sticks to the text as closely as possible.
In the Hollywood version, the ghost is holding a bird of pray and there is music corresponding to the actions of the ghost. The ghost is shown walking towards Macbeth, who tries to escape, and when the ghost corners him, you see the ghost disintegrate. That would not be possible in a theatre. In the Royal Shakespeare Production there is no music, and instead of Macbeth trying to escape the ghost, he tries to stab it with his dagger. This shows the physicality of Macbeth, he cannot cope with ghosts but he could beat any man or animal physically. The Royal Shakespeare Production also shows Lady Macbeth trying to protect Macbeth this is not shown in the Hollywood version.
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