What advice would u give to the actress playing Lady Macbeth in Act 2, Scene 2?

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What advice would u give to the actress playing Lady Macbeth in Act 2, Scene 2?

First of all I would talk to the actress about the qualities I want her to bring out in the character, the ways in which her feelings change and the dramatic importance of the scene.

The dramatic importance in this scene is the irony. There are a lot of ironic feelings occurring. Lady Macbeth has a kind of perfect vision that she and Macbeth will both be King and Queen of Scotland both sharing the power as well as triumph and happiness. She is especially triumphant because she has succeeded in gaining power over the country and over a man- her husband. ‘Unsex me here,’ this line suggests this and when she calls to the evil spirits to make her ruthless. It means that she wants her femininity to be taken away, she wants a sex change regarding roles. She despises the fact that women are inferior to men, as this is set in the year 1040 and in this period, women were seen as the fragile sex whose only role was to be a loving wife to her husband when he went to battle. She wants the man’s role, she’s craving the supremacy, power and dominance. This scene focuses on such qualities and emphasises on the irony therefore the actress needs to show and liberate this plus she has to make the audience aware of the different feelings and reactions displaying this and the fact that murder is the wedge stopping Lady Macbeth and Macbeth from being united, drawing them apart rather than joining them together.

The actress playing Lady Macbeth should be in a dark place in pitch darkness and a white spotlight should be focused on her shes centre of stage this is linked with the fact that she wants the authority hence she wants to be centre of attention and demands respect from everyone.

‘That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; what hath quenched them hath given me fire,’ Lady Macbeth is saying that the drink which was given to the guards to drunken them, has made them weak and made her strong- so there is a change of sex roles here where Lady Macbeth feels that she has gained some sort of power giving her a boost of confidence increasing her hopes of a successful plan of killing Duncan and gaining the throne and the throne’s power. Therefore when the actress says this line, she must try to act bold and say this line out aloud with confidence, with her head high with her narrowing her eyes to represent her cunningness. She could also inhale and exhale deeply after saying this.

‘Hark peace!’ Lady Macbeth is startled by this noise as it interrupted her thoughts and made her even more frightened. She relaxes herself but is tense again when she hears the owl, thinking its Duncan’s cry but then discovers its an owl. The actress is alarmed, she jumps and her eyes all of a sudden widen simultaneously, she puts her hand on her heart too. Then she turns her head looking left and right quickly and then looks behind her, leaning forward tilting her body left to right to see in the distance and breathes heavily.

‘It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellmen which gives the stern’st good night. He is about it.’ She giggles nervously because she feels foolish as she thought it was Duncan’s scream- irony here. The irony is that she is correct, Duncan had screamed when he was killed by Macbeth. She could also

roll her eyes to the sky, shake her head and sigh, moving her hand to mouth feeling embarrassed that she got so panicky.

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At this point Lady Macbeth is feeling pleased and contented that her husband is following her orders, respecting her, giving her great authority so the actress should smirk to show her satisfaction.

Lady Macbeth pauses for a few seconds to show her regaining calmness. Then she says this line, ‘The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets, that death and nature do contend about the whether they live or die.’ The ‘I’ should be stressed, the actress should say this firmly and confidently. Lady Macbeth is ...

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