Analyze the differences between the 2006 BBC version of Macbeth and Shakespeare's version. Comment on how the story has been changed to suit the demands of a modern day audience and review the T.V adaptation.

In the third paragraph I’m going to write about how well the two versions show Lady Macbeth’s change from sanity to madness and how the new version by the BBC have used camera effects to show this change.

     I think that the BBC have done a very good job of changing the script written by Shakespeare (in old English) designed for the stage into a film script and into modern day English and into the 21st century. I think that the best change within the script is the three predictions that the witches gave because in the BBC’s version the witches (bin men in the new one)give the predictions in the old one that Macbeth can only be killed by someone not of woman born (meaning someone who has been born via a cesarean) where as In the new one the bin men (witches) give the prediction that Joe (Macbeth) will only be defeated when pigs fly (pigs being the police). On the other hand I don’t think that the producer/ director of the BBC version of Macbeth have done a very good job of converting the characters in the old Macbeth into characters from the 21st century because back in the 16th century to kill a king would be one of the worst crimes a man could commit because they believed that the king was personally selected by God to rule over the land (which is what happens in the old version) but in the new version Joe (Macbeth) kills the owner of a top restaurant in order to become head chef which I don’t think is very realistic and doesn’t  compare to killing the king in the old version of Macbeth.

      I think that the use of new technology helped the producers/ director of the new version of Macbeth tremendously because throughout the whole of the old version of Macbeth when it was shown on stage the crowd would only have been able to see one view of the stage throughout the whole of play (a long distance view if you where in the top stands and a close up view if you where in the standing pit area) where as throughout the whole of the new version (which is a film) the camera shot keeps on changing which helps keep the viewers attention therefore meeting the demands of a modern day audience.

     In Shakespeare’s original version of Macbeth, Shakespeare gradually makes Lady Macbeth go mad due to all the stress of committing a murder. In the original script they do this by making Lady Macbeth and Macbeth start arguing until finally Lady Macbeth cracks and suddenly realizes what she has done in order to make her husband king and realizes what a bad idea the whole thing was. But in the new version of Macbeth Ella (Lady Macbeth) very rapidly turns mad as apposed to slowly deteriorating until she finally goes mad. I think the ways within which they show her going mad i.e. doing her lipstick then smudging it all over her face, was very effective although I thought that it would have been even more effective if she slowly went mad over a longer period of time.

     In general I personally thought that Shakespeare’s original version of Macbeth was better than the BBC’s new version. This is because I felt that the situations used in the BBC’s version of Macbeth were very unrealistic and not as dramatic as the old one which would have been one of the most dramatic plays of its time. That’s why I personally prefer the old Shakespeare’s version of Macbeth.