Presenting Macbeth

one knee and bow to the lord. They will remain like this for several seconds until the lord Hecate has exited the stage.When Macbeth enters there will be a loud clap of thunder followed by the light behind the sheet in the back flashing for a few seconds to simulate lightning. Macbeth will have a faint spotlight of white light will shine on him. The light will not be too strong to show that the good that is left in Macbeth is waning and it will take little persuasion from an evil force to drive him all the way to eternal damnation. The thunder and lighting will alert the audience that something important is happening (Macbeth´s entry). When Macbeth speaks he will have a deep, booming voice. Clearly belonging to the higher orders although now and again in his dialogue his voice will wobble and break into that of an underling, like the Stereotypical voice of the witches. His voice will do this when he speaks of murder or of other foul acts he has committed. This means that it will happen mainly after Lennox has informed him of Macduff´s flight to England. This will show the audience that Macbeth would be a strong (Psychologically) man if he could stand up to the manipulations and corruptions of the Witches.The first apparition is an ‘armed head´. This doesn´t mean that it´s a head with arms. That would be stupid. It is in fact a head with a helmet on. I think that it is hard to actually portray a floating head on stage without special camera effects like in a film. Therefore I will make the ‘armed head´ into an actual armoured warrior. The helmet will be one that encloses the bearer´s head fully, so hiding the face inside. I would make my armoured warrior wear exactly the same clothes as Macbeth, but he will not notice this. The identical clothing will act as a testament that is Macbeth himself who is causing him to fall from grace. The warrior will chant the word Macbeth louder and louder as he walks around the King. He will do this once until reaching the point from which he appeared. He will appear to leave but will turn around at the last moment and say, in a normal conversation voice ‘beware Macduff´. He will then go on with ‘Beware the Thane of Fife´ (Macduff´s title) before ordering Macbeth ‘Dismiss me, enough!´ He will be one of the only characters in the play who will speak to Macbeth in such a way and not cause Macbeth to become angry. The second apparition to appear to Macbeth is a bloody child, supposedly coming from a caesarean operation. This will be a difficult apparition to show and so I think that a child of maybe eight or nine years will be used. Once again, all the relevant lights will dim and this time a beam of light, hinted with red shall shine on the child. The high voice of this apparition (a pre-pubescent child) will contrast sharply with the mighty voice of Macbeth. The audience should notice that the power of the Witches has caused Macbeth to focus all of his attention on a small child. After Macbeth has heard that ‘none of woman born´ can harm him Macbeth becomes happy as he thinks that he can defeat Macduff. He will turn away from the apparition towards the audience and smile and nod to himself. Finally the third apparition appears, a child wearing a crown and holding a twig. Perhaps this is to show that a child has the power of leadership (the crown - royalty) and nature (the twig). This Child will be about 10-11 years old and he will be wearing the royal colours of the old king Duncan. The audience will be aware of the colours of Duncan from earlier in the play but in this scene only the top half of the child´s body will be lit up and so it won´t be blatantly obvious as to what the child is wearing. These colours will show that the spirit of Duncan lives on in his sons who will eventually come to defeat Macbeth. Despite being a child this apparition will speak with the voice of a full-grown man, the voice of Macbeth, which will be provided by a pre-recording on a tape player. This may show the loss of childhood innocence in the way that the child is speaking with the voice of a man and also how it is Macbeth himself who is his own worst enemy. This will be one of the strongest indications to the audience that it is Macbeth who is causing himself to be corrupted. The contrast of the small boy and the deep voice will be very noticeable.Macbeth is very happy at what the apparitions have said and fails to notice the many hidden symbols that they bear such as the identical clothing worn by the first apparition and the colours of Duncan and the voice of Macbeth borne by the third apparition.Only one thing troubles Macbeth now, the idea that it may be the offspring of Banquo who reguarly had his wicked way with his wife, who rule the kingdom instead of his own. Macbeth therefore orders the Witches to tell him about this. After he has made the question “…shall Banquo´s issue ever reign in this kingdom?” There will be a pause of about 3 seconds; long enough to alert the audience that something important is about to happen. Thee Witches will turn away from Macbeth and look to the floor before saying “Seek to know no more”; they know that the images that they must now show Macbeth will not please him, but he has demanded it and although the Witches have infinitely more power than Macbeth they will show him this apparition as they have shown him the apparitions that have pleased him.All of the lights will go out so that the stage is completely dark. A white light will come on a follow on the first of the eight kings who will walk on to the stage. The first king´s coat-of-arms will be vaguely familiar to the audience but as each king comes on stage with his own spotlight it will be obvious where this familiarity comes from. The first king will the furthest descendant from Banquo who will come on stage at the very end and as time has gone by the Banquo coat-of-arms will have changed through marriage etc… Therefore as the kings slowly come on stage the royal colours the kings wear will become more and more recognisable. This will be the first sign that everything is not how it seems to be spotted by Macbeth. As the first king enters Macbeth will show signs of recognition (he will have his own dimmed spotlight on him now) and as more of the kings arrive Macbeth will become more and more agitated. He will begin to slowly pace across the stage, looking at each king in turn with interest and horror. At time he will need to face the audience so that it is apparent to those watching how worried Macbeth now is. He will see the reflections of all of the kings in the mirror that the final one will bring out and the awful truth will begin to dawn on him. When the ghost of Banquo arrives Macbeth will be very angry with the Witches and his soliloquy will become louder and louder as the kings appear until all of them are standing in front of him. They will stay for a few seconds before all of the lights with the exception of Macbeth´s go out. The actors playing the kings and Banquo will rush off stage so that the ambient lighting can come back on after only a few seconds, giving the impression that the kings have totally vanished. Macbeth will shout the final line of the soliloquy (“…What, is this so?”) during the darkness (to hide the noises created by the exiting actors) in anger at the witches for showing him this apparition which is not what he expected, or wished to see.The Witches will now begin to smile and look pleased with their work. They will begin to mock Macbeth with the song they will sing and the first Witch praises Macbeth as a ‘great king´ in a voice of mock worship. Once more the audience will realise that Macbeth has no power over these creatures and how they are the real evil in the play. Macbeth is simply an unfortunate puppet who has been picked out. The Witches dance and vanish (the lights will go out again). When the lights come back on they will be noticeably brighter due to the departure of the Witches. Macbeth will be shouting his lines about how the Witches have abandoned him when Lennox enters. Lennox will be accompanied by a man wearing the colours of Macbeth. He will, however be muddy and look tiered out. In his hand he will be carrying a large leather bag. This man will be the messenger that Lennox will inform Macbeth about. Macbeth will still have his dim spotlight on him but Lennox will have a bright light, his uniform/armour will be clean and shining, showing that Lennox has not fallen from grace as Macbeth so clearly has. Lennox will inform Macbeth of the flight of Macduff to England which will lead to Macbeth´s final soliloquy of this scene. During this Macbeth will speak of his plans to murder Macduff. He will pace around the front stage whilst Lennox walks towards the back of the stage to talk with the messenger. Macbeth should look flustered and angry, he should look as if he has lost all sanity and means of rational thought, showing the audience that in this one scene Macbeth has gone from a murderer to a madman. The spotlight will be put out permanently. There is no way back for Macbeth now Daniel Furby 11DV