Macbeth Post-Renaissance Stage Productions

Julianne Sager '05

           

Imagine being at The Globe, the theatre of William Shakespeare’s time.  It is broad daylight and you are attending a performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  There is no roof on the circular building, save where the balconies are.  That is where the nobility is seated.  Everyone in the general population stands in front of the stage on the ground.  The stage is raised above ground level by about four feet.  There is no curtain hiding the stage before show time.  As the play begins, one may notice that the actors are not wearing historically accurate costumes nor are they using much of anything in the way of props.  The actors created the scenes with their words rather than using “special effects” or props.  There are no women in the cast but rather boys wearing women’s clothes.  Also, many of the actors had multiple roles because there were always more roles than there were actors.  (Class notes, 8/24/04)

           

Things have changed greatly since the Renaissance times in terms of stage productions.  Today, there is access to the most current technology and multiple interpretations of ideas.  In modern times, there are stages with elaborate props and even machinery to rotate the entire stage just to change a scene.  Women are also included in the production of a play, not only as actresses but as stage hands, directors, and designers.  Actors and actresses can dawn the most historically accurate costumes or may use the most basic of clothes to emphasize the meaning behind their words.

           

A fairly recent example of an adaptation of Macbeth is in Charlotte, North Carolina.  A man by the name of Giuseppe Verdi created an opera version of Macbeth.  Verdi was able to use music to depict power and create atmosphere for the tragedy.  At one specific point in Verdi’s version of Macbeth, the witches’ procession of kings, bagpipes were used creating a tone that was “dignified and disembodied at once.”(Brown, Charlotte Observer. 10/17/04)

           

Another adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragic Macbeth occurred also fairly recently in Boston, Massachusetts by the Boston University Stage Troupe.  The troupe did a modernized version of Macbeth in which it was all about “sex, cigarettes, and really big guns.”  The group preserved the Shakespearean language of the play but added “unique and contemporary settings: swing music and people in trench coats and fedoras.”  There was a cast of 15 actors for the 40 roles in Macbeth so it followed that most actors had multiple roles.  (Nazari, The Daily Free Press. 4/14/01)

           

Other productions may choose to go the realistic look.  Tim Vasen, who directed Macbeth in Baltimore, Maryland, used brilliant and eye-catching effects in the later scenes of the play while the scenes and sets were nearly barren in the earlier scenes of the play.  Vasen uses this to give an intensifying feeling, a feeling of urgency.  He used ample blood in the scenes of death and the “out damn spot” scene.  Also in the Macduff murder scene, there is an eerie silence and cringing of the audience when the neck of an infant is snapped with an audible “crack.”  This interpretation of Macbeth seems to have bordered on a movie-wanna-be.  Vasen seemed to be trying to upset people by the intensity of his effects, although in Renaissance times gruesome was the reality.  (Jensen, City Paper.  4/5/00)

           

Finally, possibly one of the most technologically advanced productions of Macbeth was displayed in Louisville, Kentucky.  The stage is bare, save for three large white screens which are the projection screens.  There are just about four operators of the projectors and videos used in the production.  What is more amazing is that there is a cast of three.  Only three people play the entire cast of 40, two men and one woman.  Some images are projected onto the projection screens, while some others are projected onto thick smoke.  The digital images are also used to change the scenery as it can morph instantly.  One of the four operators must sit in a pit below to adjust the speed and/or timing of the video just in case an actor slips up on his or her lines.  Another benefit to having this technology is that all the sets are affordable, probably more so than a full stage production which is attempting to convey the same effects. (Gibson, Apple News. 2002)

           

Of all the more contemporary productions of Macbeth, there is one thing that remains the same:  they all use microphones.  In the Renaissance period and even up until the invention of nanotechnology, actors would need to rely on acoustics and projection (in other words, a loud carrying voice) to carry their voice to the audience.  This could have been problematic is a scene was written to be quiet and may have presented a problem in conveying the correct feelings and emotions to the audience.  Now, however, actors are able to make use of the mini-microphones. 

           

Macbeth has been portrayed by many high profile actors on stage (Kelsey Grammer in 2000) and on the big screen (Sean Connery in 1961 and Ian McKellen in 1979) as it seems to be one of the most tragic and intriguing of William Shakespeare’s plays.  It will continue to evolve and be interpreted in many different ways as technology and ideas advance through time.

 

Works Cited