Discuss the importance of the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Discuss the importance of the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth Introduction I am going to be discussing the importance of the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth by focusing on three main scenes > The prologue > Act 1 Scene 3 > Act 4 Scene 1 These are the main parts of the play where to witches appear I am going to leave out act 3 scene 5 although it includes the witches it is not recognized as part of Shakespeare's work And Polanski has also left it out of his production There is some very historical importance about the witches The fact that in the time this play was being written people where being accused of being witches and where being burned for it so people would have been very scared and aware of witches and there evil powers they would have been very intimidating. Now day's witches are seen as a fun thing to dress up as at Halloween so polanski would have had a hard time scary a modern audience. He don't not use typical things like thunder and lightning instead he used fog and a misty settings when the witches are around, sometimes rain Prologue The story begins with thunder this would be very scary to a Shakespearean audience and it suggests to the audience and dangerous and uncontrollable power where as in Polanski's version he begins with no thunder and just a misty rainy sort of weather. They start talking about where they should meet Macbeth notice
The Lottery did not randomly choose its victim
Justin Williams final draft The Lottery did not randomly choose its victim When Shirley Jackson wrote "The Lottery" she received many letters from many horrified readers who were shocked by the seemingly realness of the story. Although the short story was fictional, the characters and situations the story symbolized were very much real. Jackson uses this symbolism to help convey her message: traditions should not be allowed to be unexamined and unchanged. One character, for whom the symbolism is so deep that she dies as a result of it, is Tessie Hutchinson. Tessie Hutchinson's symbolism is quite literally her death. She ends up being killed as a result of the Lottery, but it is no coincidence that it is she who is the one to pull the slip of paper with a mark of coal. Tessie bears the name Hutchinson, the same name as religious reformer Anne Hutchinson of the 17th century who was banished from the Massachusetts colony for her upsetting of religious tradition in that colony. In the contemporary story of "The Lottery," Tessie upsets tradition in a less extreme fashion than Anne, but is forced to pay the price with her life. Her first offense to tradition is arriving late to the lottery drawing, claiming she, "clean forgot what day it was." (783) Unlike the reader at the time, Tessie knows the lottery is the day when someone from the community is selected to be stoned, and
Development phase
Billy liar - Development phase From the play, my group have been set to direct and act out the middle section of Act 3, from page 99 to page 103. Our section starts at the bottom of page 99, line 634 where Geoffrey says "what time of bloody night do you call this?" and finishes at the start of page 103, line 728 where Geoffrey says " Don't try and be funny with me, lad! Or you'll laugh on the other side of your face!" Just before our assigned section of the play, Liz, Billy's ex-lover who previously left town and has recently came back, and Billy plan to move to London. They imagine running away together, having children, and being happy. The idea of Billy going to London came from a job offer as a script writer in London. We already know Billy is a fantasist, and therefore script writing would be perfect for him. Following on from our assigned section, Billy packs his belongings in to a suitcase and leaves home to go to London with Liz. The section is set in the living room of the fisher household, in 1959 at night time; 'it's only ten'. The living room consists of a dining table which is positioned upstage left, two single chairs which are positioned centre-stage right, the kitchen entrance and exit is upstage right and the hallway is upstage left. The style of text in this text is very naturalistic as it is a conversation between parents and their son, emotions changing,
Blood Brothers
Blood Brothers Evaluation Title: Blood Brothers presented by Bill Kenwright Productions Venue: His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen Date: 14/3/07 ) This play was about twins that were separated at birth. One child lives in poverty and the other lives with a rich family. The story is set around the themes of unemployment, crime and superstition. 2) The structure of the play was a play with elements of musical theatre. 3) The structural devices used in the play were tableaux, flashbacks, flashforwards and a narrator. The play was a nonlinear play as it went from ending to beginning then middle and back to the end. 4) There was a cast of 14 actors and actress's. 6 of them stayed in the roles all the through and the rest had multi-roles. 5) The play was very imaginatively set out. The used the space well. The set used balconies and multiple backgrounds. It was presented in an end on layout. The staged was a raked stage with means it tilts up slightly given more levels. 6) The actors were very good they were able to change there character when needed e.g. when the age of there character changed or when there character was needed to show emotion. 7) There were a lot of different ways they used to create suspense. They used music, sound effects, lighting, props and costume. 8) The set was a street witch changed when they moved from the city to country. The background also
Blood Brothers
GCSE DRAMA unit 2 Portfolio Work 1 Response 1 For our first piece of work, to the opening of our unit 2 "Blood Brothers" section, we were set the task of taking the first and opening song in the play, "Marilyn Monroe" and to add different drama techniques. The basic layout for my group was as above. We had two different couples doing very similar things but at the same time, they were also slightly different. We also had one narrator who spoke the song as well as doing various, appropriate actions. When reading this opening for the first time I thought that it was about a mother who was very troubled yet extremely happy, that no matter how much she was in debt or how many times the welfare bothered her, she was only ever bothered about her many children. The mother was amusing in ways which showed her happy side but then again when she was saying things such as, "No more dancing", it clearly showed that she wasn't overjoyed about that as she obviously loved to dance and feel young. Throughout the song, we see the mother is always comparing herself to a certain Marilyn Monroe. I believe this is because Monroe was seen as an idol. She was always photographed looking pretty and slim and all women wanted to be like her. She was a very big role model to many people. Although, later on in her life, Monroe started to go off the rails, she got rather mixed up with life and went
Blood Brothers
Show Your Understanding and appreciation of the ways in which the elements of drama can be used in realizing a written performance. "Compare and contrast two performances you have been to see. Which was the more successful in your opinion and why?" I am going to compare the two performances of Blood Brothers I have seen which were in London "Phoenix Theatre" and "Bristol Hippodrome". In London I noticed all the characters had very strong Liverpudlian accents. They managed to keep them consistent throughout the play, even when their characters were growing up, and singing. However in Bristol some of the actors seemed to struggle with the Liverpool dialect. Linda was one of the only characters that managed to keep her accent throughout the play, and her accent was very believable. As part of Alienation which was developed by Bertolt, Brecht, it meant there was no scene changes, characters put costumes on in full view of the audience and the songs play a big part in this play. The performance in London had a live orchestra in full view so the audience could clearly see them beside the stage; this took you away from the action and stopped you believing it was so real. Also from the top window of the Johnston's house instead of a window there was a wire mesh and behind of which was the lighting equipment and technician. The use of these devices meant that the realism of
Blood Brothers
Blood Brothers; Evaluation 'Blood Brothers' is a play that is so dramatic it made me change my emotions form happy to sad in the space of 5 minutes. It highlights the differences between the 'upper' and 'lower' classes and covers the terrible dilemma of a mother who gives one twin away to another person who lives up the road, of a much higher class. It makes me wonder what I would do if I were in that situation. The emotions portrayed in the play are much more intense than those within the book. I think it was a good idea for us to have studied the play in class as we read through it and acted it out. This gave us a very good idea of what to expect within the performance at the theatre. While studying the play we looked at freeze frames and even produced a piece of coursework on one we did where we showed the deaths of both Mickey and Eddie and interpreted it in our own way. We also focused a lot on characterisation and really looked at trying to portray the emotions of the characters through our body language, facial expressions, proxemics, and movement. I feel this really helped when we went to go and see it as it made me focus on how the characters are portraying there emotions to the audience and how my way of showing the same emotion was done differently through a different character. Having heard the songs before and listened carefully to the words, made it much more
Blood Brothers
BLOOD BROTHERS This term we have been working on the text of Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. The main themes in 'Blood Brothers' are childhood, growing up, class, motherhood and death. I have really enjoyed working on this topic because I like the story line. I liked the way the impression of the story was made. There are some sorrowful scenes in the play. But then there are joyful scenes. In one lesson we worked on the Marilyn Monroe song. The song is called 'Marilyn Monroe'. It is about a woman who goes to a nightclub and a man comes up to her and starts to chat with her. He asked her to dance and she says yes. Then they get married and have a child called Darren Wayne. The next time she wanted to go to the nightclub her husband said to her ' I'm not going with you, you are too fat'. So he went to the nightclub without her and she is left with her kids all the six of them. While the husband is at the nightclub he finds another woman and starts to dance with her, then he comes home with the girl he just met and walks out on his wife with his new girlfriend and then the wife is left with the kids. In this scene I played the character of the husband. At one point in the scene my character felt that he didn't care about his kids. I tried showing this through my body language by just smiling at my new girlfriend and not say goodbye, and waving my arms about
Blood Brothers.
Theatre Visit- Blood Brothers. We visited a London Theatre, 'The Phoenix Theatre' on the 13th March 2003 and saw 'Blood Brothers'. The play was about a single parent who had many children, and then became pregnant again with twins. Her rich employer wanted children but could not have any herself; she asked if she could have one of the babies in secret and tell people the baby was her own. Reluctantly, the pregnant mother agrees to give up one of her babies as she could not afford the unborn child, and also under the conditions that she could see the child grow up everyday when she came to her work to clean the home. As the children grow up, one remains poor in his family, and the other raised by a much higher class family is raised in a posh environment with good manners and behaviour- the other the complete opposite. When they become around 7 years old they cross each other in the neighbourhood, and not knowing that they are true brothers, they become close friends. A friendship which becomes so close, they decide to perform the classic ritual of cutting their hands, exchanging blood and becoming 'Blood Brothers'. The two boys grow up as best friends, while only the mothers know the truth. Eventually the richer mother decides to move away so her son has no contact with his birth mother and discovers the truth. Soon after the poorer mother is given a new home by the
Blood Brothers coursework
Blood Brothers Play Review Recently I have been to see 'Blood Brothers' the musical and I will be writing a review on my thoughts of the production. 'Blood Brothers' is about male twins that were separated at birth. One 'Eddie' was given away to Mrs Lyons to be adopted and the other was kept with its birth mother 'Mrs Johnston'. The boys grew up on different sides of the neighbourhood and soon encountered each other and became 'Blood Brothers'. Mrs Lyons did not want Eddie to find out that she was not his mother so she decided to move away and have a new beginning. Co-incidentally they moved to the same neighbourhood. They met again. Eddie went off to college and Mickey looked for a job. Mickey married his childhood sweetheart Linda and Linda them a house by asking Eddie. Mickey didn't like the fact that Eddie was providing for his family. Mickey began to get jealous and went after Eddie but he wasn't going to kill him, the police got the wrong impression. They were both killed. Staging I think that the staging of the play was very efficient because they only ever had to change the whole set once and this was during the intermission. The set was of the rough side of the neighbourhood and the houses were on the left, on the right hand side of the stage there were a few exits in the form of alleyways. I think that this was very effective because the set was used in many
