Elizabeth Warwick 10B
Staging Macbeth
If I were to stage Macbeth I would keep in mind the themes running throughout the play. Therefore I would consider would sort of stage would be most appropriate for staging it. I feel the era I would choose to set it in would be Nazi Germany in the 1940’s and Macbeth playing an Adolf Hitler role, and appearing on stage in a full length black trench coat, with the voices of the three witches being played in the background. From reviewing all of the different stages I consider the thrust stage to be the most practical option. When you look at the themes in Macbeth, the importance of, ‘three’ is very apparent. A cunning idea of using thrust staging is that the stage reflects this as the audience faces the stage from three sides, a key element in my decision of using this type of staging is that, it allows the audience to be very close to the acting, and the performance taking place. As thrust staging g was the common form of staging in Shakespearean theatre, it could be said that Macbeth was written to be performed on such a stage, I feel it will be interesting to see how I can give the same play a different approach with different set, but still be staged on the same type of stage as it was originally intended. In a play such as Macbeth, there are many key themes goodness and evil, hypocrisy and deception, the supernatural, justice and retribution, kinship, loyalty and love, as well as the acting I want the stage and it’s set to try and convey some of these themes using lighting techniques and set.
