Write about the transposition of Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, from live theatre to the medium of television.

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Shloimi WerjukaStudent Media Services LimitedStudent Media Services Limited        English Coursework

Media Studies

Write about the transposition of Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, from live theatre to the medium of television.

There exist many forms of media, such as TV, newspapers, and radio.

In my own personal opinion television is the most important form of media, as radio has the ability to make sounds, newspapers have the ability to show pictures but television has the ability to show moving pictures and sounds. In our modern society millions of people throughout the world could all watch the same film, in their living rooms, by themselves, whilst in Shakespeare’s time in order to watch Macbeth, for example, you would have to go to the theatre, where the audience would be smaller but together.

        In the theatre the audience choose what they want to see, they are quite far from the actors and cannot see their faces very clearly, so the actors would have to show their emotions and expressions that would normally be conveyed through body language and facial expressions, using their language. They would also have to shout as in Shakespeare’s time microphones were not yet invented. Seeing vas the language was so important in the theatre (as emotions could not be conveyed through facial expressions), Shakespeare was very careful with his choice of words.

        On television, however, the director decides what you see and how closely and clearly you see the actors. The actor’s mistakes are never shown as before any play or film is put on air it is carefully censored. The actors acting on television need to use their body language and especially facial expressions very well as it is possible to have the actors face taking up the whole screen, which is why a modern audience would not appreciate the language as much as they would have in Shakespeare’s time. In the theatre the audience can choose who or what to look at, which makes it a lot harder for the actors to make sure that the audience is looking at the right thing at the right time and it is quite likely for the audience to miss the important parts of the play. On television, however, the director will make sure that all of the irrelevant bits or anything that might distract the audience is not displayed and that the important parts are taking up the whole screen.

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        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 ...

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