Lady Macbeth, from a ‘dearest partner of greatness’ to a ‘fiend-like queen’.
Lady Macbeth’s role in the events of Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ is an important one. Without her, it is doubtful that Macbeth would have gone through with the slaying of Duncan, especially in such a cowardly, murderous way that he does. This is shown with Macbeth’s continued change of mind about committing the murder. When he speaks with his wife in Act 1, Scene 5, he states. ‘We will speak further’. And subsequently in Act 1, Scene 7, ‘We will proceed no further in this business….’. At the beginning of the play the Macbeth’s relationship is depicted as being one of a loving, caring and understanding marriage. They appear to compliment each other within this, but yet, each brings something different into their marriage.
Dame Judi Dench’s depiction of Lady Macbeth in Trevor Nunn’s 1978 production was one of a more mature, plainer woman, than that of the Polanski adaptation. With little or no makeup, plain hairstyling and dark bland costumes, Trevor Nunn’s production further complimented this style with a dimly lit sparse setting, similar in lay out to that of how Shakespeare would have originally portrayed the play on stage . With this format, the audience is drawn more into how and what is being spoken and the facial expressions of the characters, than by being distracted by any ‘period’ surrounding scenery. This in turn makes Trevor Nunn’s, Lady Macbeth as portrayed by Dame Judi Dench a more convincing character, unlike the young, fresh faced, virgin like Lady Macbeth in Polanski’s adaptation which included many additional scene’s, such as the killing of enemy survivors of the Battle and the subsequent hanging of the original traitor ‘The Thane of Cawdor’. Polanski omits part of Lady Macbeth’s speech in Act 1, Scene 7 including ‘…Pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,…’. In doing this, he robs Lady Macbeth’s character of much of her emotion, totally failing her in her Soliloquy on the battlements. However in contrast, Dame Judi Dench’s depiction of the same scene is wonderfully portrayed with great quality of emotion and feeling which totally out classes Francesca Annes attempt.
