1. Macbeth
-An Introduction-

2. Macbeth: An Introduction
Macbeth is among the best-known of William Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy.
Believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606.

3. Macbeth: An Introduction
It is frequently performed at both amateur and professional levels, and has been adapted for opera, film, books, stage and screen.
Often regarded as archetypal, the play tells of the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends.

4. The Many Meanings of Macbeth
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The Many Meanings of Macbeth
A historical thriller
a fast-moving, action-packed murder mystery demonstrating that crime doesn’t pay
A psychological study of a murderer’s mind
A play of political and social realism
how oppressive and hierarchical society can corrupt individuals
A play of illusions
the effect of the mysterious or supernatural on humans
A play of ideas or themes
for example, “appearance versus reality”
A tragedy
the fall of a great person brought about by a fatal flaw in their character
Everyone brings something unique to their reading of a play or a novel . . .
How people interpret something is largely due to their own prior experiences . . .
These are just a few of the interpretations of Macbeth that people have dreamed up over the years. More than anything else, I want to impress you with the fact that Macbeth is a really gutsy, interesting play.

5. The Real Macbeth king of Scotland (1040–57).
He succeeded his father as governor of the province of Moray c.1031
was a military commander for Duncan I.
(Right: portrait of Macbeth)

6. The Real Macbeth
In 1040, Macbeth killed Duncan in battle and seized the throne.
Possibly of royal descent himself, he acquired a direct claim to the throne through his wife, Gruoch; she was a granddaughter of Kenneth III, who had been overthrown by Duncan's ancestor Malcolm II.
(Right: portrait of Duncan I)

7. The Real Macbeth
Macbeth represented northern elements in the population who were opposed to the ties with the Saxons advocated by Duncan.
Macbeth was defeated in 1054 by Siward, earl of Northumbria, who regained the southern part of Scotland on behalf of Malcolm Canmore, Duncan's son.
Malcolm himself regained the rest of the kingdom after defeating and killing Macbeth in the battle of Lumphanan. He then succeeded to the throne as Malcolm III.

8. The Real Macbeth
William Shakespeare's version of the story comes from the accounts of Raphael Holinshed and Hector Boece.

9. “The Scottish Play”
There are many superstitions centred on the belief that the play is somehow “cursed”.

10. “The Scottish Play” Explanation #1
Shakespeare is said to have used the spells of real witches in his text, purportedly angering the witches and causing them to curse the play.

11. “The Scottish Play” Explanation #2
Struggling theatres or companies would often put on this popular 'blockbuster' in an effort to save their flagging fortunes.
However, it is a tall order for any single production to reverse a long-running trend of poor business.
Therefore, the last play performed before a theatre shut down was often Macbeth, and thus the growth of the idea that it was an 'unlucky' play.

12. “The Scottish Play” Explanation #3
Theatre companies may have used Macbeth as a back-up play if they were to lose an actor and were not able to perform the production originally planned for the performance.
Macbeth requires fewer actors (when doubling of characters for actors occurs) and has the least amount of text for the actors to memorize.
Macbeth may have been the play kept in theatre companies' back pockets, just in case some bad luck were to occur prior to any planning of a performance.

13. “The Scottish Play”
A large mythology has built up surrounding this superstition, with countless stories of accidents, misfortunes and even deaths, all mysteriously taking place during runs of Macbeth (or by actors who had uttered the name).
Many actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish play".

14. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
Here are some of the gory particulars: Beginning with its first performance, in 1606, Dear Will himself was forced to play Lady Macbeth when Hal Berridge, the boy designated to play the lady with a peculiar notion of hospitality, became inexplicably feverish and died. Moreover, the bloody play so displeased King James I that he banned it for five years.

15. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
When performed in Amsterdam in 1672, the actor playing Macbeth substituted a real dagger for the blunted stage one and with it killed Duncan in full view of the entranced audience.

16. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
As Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons was nearly ravaged by a disapproving audience in 1775; Sybil Thorndike was almost strangled by a burly actor in 1926; Diana Wynyard sleepwalked off the rostrum in 1948, falling down 15 feet.

17. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
During its 1849 performance at New York's Astor Place, a riot broke out in which 31 people were trampled to death.

18. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
In 1937, when Laurence Olivier took on the role of Macbeth, a 25 pound stage weight crashed within an inch of him, and his sword which broke onstage flew into the audience and hit a man who later suffered a heart attack.

19. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
In 1934, British actor Malcolm Keen turned mute onstage, and his replacement, Alister Sim, like Hal Berridge before him, developed a high fever and had to be hospitalized.

20. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
In the 1942 Macbeth production headed by John Gielgud, three actors -- Duncan and two witches -- died, and the costume and set designer committed suicide amidst his devilish Macbeth creations.

21. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
The indestructible Charlton Heston, in an outdoor production in Bermuda in 1953, suffered severe burns in his groin and leg area from tights that were accidentally soaked in kerosene.

22. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
An actor's strike felled Rip Torn's 1970 production in New York City; two fires and seven robberies plagued the 1971 version starring David Leary; in the 1981 production at Lincoln Center, J. Kenneth Campbell, who played Macduff, was mugged soon after the play's opening.

23. “The Scottish Play”: A Chronology of Misfortunes
Even brave and talented actors like Glenda Jackson to Ian McKellen don’t refer to this haunted play by name, but instead call it “That Scottish Play” or simply “That Play”; everyone, it seems, will get the message, in a flash.

24. “The Scottish Play”
Several methods exist to dispel the curse, depending on the actor.
One is to immediately leave the building the stage is in with the person who uttered the name, walk around it three times, spit over their left shoulders, say an obscenity then wait to be invited back into the building.
Another popular "ritual" is to leave the room, knock three times, be invited in, and then quote a line from Hamlet.
Yet another is to recite one of Shylock's monologues from The Merchant of Venice.

25. Witches & Witchcraft A witch-mania characterized the Elizabethan era.
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Witches & Witchcraft
A witch-mania characterized the Elizabethan era.
Most people believed in witches and circulating pamphlets containing tales of witches and witchcraft were the equivalent of today’s popular newspapers.
Remember that a person is very much a product of their times.
Elizabethan and Renaissance audiences were morbidly fascinated with witches and witchcraft. Persecution of people for the "crime" of witchcraft reached terrifying proportions - between 1560 and 1603, hundreds of people (nearly all of them women) were convicted as witches and executed.
The most popular method of execution?
King James was as fascinated by witchcraft as were his subjects. There is a story that in 1590, a group of witches tried to kill James (before he was king). Their plot was discovered, and they were brought to trial. One of the "witches", Agnes Sampson, claimed that she had collected toad venom to poison the king, christened a cat, tied parts of a dead man's body to it (we don't know which parts), sailed out to sea in a "sieve" and had thrown cat and body-bits overboard in order to raise a storm that would sink James' ship. A bit elaborate . . .
King James personally interrogated one of the three accused witches, "Doctor Fian" - a male. The doctor was tortured during the interrogation: "his nails upon all his fingers were riven and pulled off his legs were crushed and beaten together as small as might be, and the bones and flesh so bruised that the blood and marrow spouted forth in great abundance". Yuck.
So. . . all fired up by his witchy experience, King James personally investigated other cases, and in 1597 he wrote and published "Demonology", a book on witchcraft. When he became king of England in 1603, he ordered its immediate printing in London.
Henry Fuseli, The Three Witches

26. Witches and Witchcraft
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Witches and Witchcraft
Witches were said to have “diabolical” powers. They could:
predict the future
bring on night in the daytime
cause fogs and tempests
kill animals
curse enemies with fatal, wasting diseases
cause nightmares and sterility
take demonic possession of any individual
raise evil spirits by concocting a brew
It was believed that witches allowed the devil to suck their blood. Accused witches were examined for the “Devil’s Mark” - a red mark on their body from which the devil had sucked blood.
So here's some of the stuff Elizabethans and Renaissance people thought about witches . . .

27. Witches and Witchcraft - Misogyny?
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Witches and Witchcraft - Misogyny?
Between 1560 and 1603, hundreds of people, nearly all of them women, were convicted as witches and executed
In 1604 an official Act of Parliament decreed that anyone found guilty of practicing witchcraft should be executed
Those who confessed to being witches did so under torture or because they were in the grip of delusions recognized today as psychiatric disorders.
You would think that these "witches" would be pretty powerful people . . .
. . . but it was mostly single, old women who kept cats that were in danger of being accused of witchcraft. Remember, in 1604 an Act of Parliament decreed that if you were convicted, you were to be executed - and with the methods of "information extraction" used by the interrogators, people were likely to "spill their guts" (literally - know where that term comes from?)..
CHECK - does the group want to get into women's rights in the Seventeenth Century?
. . . here's another idea for your project: maybe you could examine Shakespeare's portrayal of women in Macbeth - very interesting topic . . .

28. The Witches AKA the Weird Sisters
Painting by William Rimmer depicting the witches’ conjuration of an apparition
(Act IV, scene i)
Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches (Act I, scene iii) by Johann Heinrich Fussli
Portrayal in the 2006 film version of Macbeth

29. The Witches
They tell Macbeth that he is destined to be king, and urge him to do bloody things.
The word weird comes from the old English word “wyrd” which means fate

30. The Witches
Their character is modeled after Norse mythology- the Norns (three Fates)
the name Urðr (Wyrd, Weird) means "fate" or simply "future",
The norns- by Arthur Rackham

31. Three Fates of Greek and Roman mythology
The Witches
The witches were also modeled after the
Three Fates of Greek and Roman mythology
They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal and immortal from birth to death .
The names of the three Parcae (Roman Fates) were:
Nona - spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle. Her Greek equivalent was Clotho;
Decima - measured the thread of life with her rod. Her Greek equivalent was Lachesis;
Morta - was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of a person's death. When she cut the thread with "her abhorrèd shears", someone on Earth died. Her Greek equivalent was Atropos.

32. The Witches Represent darkness, chaos and confusion.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair”- a contradiction.
Evil is good, while good is evil.

33. The Witches
“Double, double toil and trouble” – they cause more grief for the mortals around them.
The witches never actually tell Macbeth to kill Duncan, but merely tempt him with the idea of becoming king.
What theme of temptation might
Shakespeare be representing here?

34. Images of Macbeth

35. Creation Theatre Company-Summer 2006 production, Oxford, England

36. Roman Polanski’s 1971 film

37. Poster advertising a performance at The University of Texas at Austin
What are your thoughts on the mood of this poster? What techniques are used to evoke this mood?