WEEK 6 – YOUR PRODUCTION

Shakespeare wrote Macbeth referring to many ongoing events that were occurring in the present years of the early 1600’s. At the time, King James l took over the throne after Elizabeth l in 1603. You could say that this play was partially written for the new king as the play centers a big majority in Scottish society and and James had already been the king of Scotland. This was quite interesting as during Queen Elizabeth’s reign many plays were set on the Tudor manner and way of life in which she was the last monarch of.

On August 7th 1606, Macbeth was first put on. It was performed to King James l along with his brother in law, King Christian IV of Denmark in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace.

Fun Fact! Just before the performance was put on Hal Berridge who was meant to be playing the role of Lady Macbeth suddenly felt ill and couldn’t go on stage. It is said that Shakespeare himself filled in and played the role of Lady Macebth. Since there have been rumours that the play itself is cursed.

What happens in Macbeth?

• The three witches meet with Macbeth and tell him that he is to become king
• Macbeth then goes to meet Lady Macbeth and tell her the news he was told by the three witches
• Lady Macbeth decides she is going to kill the king and informs Macbeth
• Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth kill the king
• Macbeth then takes power and becomes king
• Macbeth becomes suspicious of Banquo and has him killed by the murderers
• Macbeth meets with the witches to be told more prophecies
• He then kills all of Macduff’s family
• Macduff the joins with Malcom, (the son of the dead king)
• Lady Macbeth loses her mind and kills herself
• Both Macduff and Malcolm dress up as trees in order to kill Macbeth
• Macduff kills Macbeth

Splendid Productions adaptation of Macbeth

Splendid Productions adaptation of Macbeth

Cast list

Scott Smith

Genevieve Say

Mark Beirne

In terms of style and design, the company themselves hardly use any set and their costumes are very plain. I believe the company have chosen to not let set and costume determine how contemporary their production is so that it is solely based in their performance.

Splendid productions take a focus into using the engagement of music in their production and comedy in order to engage their audience into a modern day version of Macbeth. The company divide all the roles between their cast of 3 meaning they share and switch the roles back and forth throughout the performance. They present the three witches lines with music and comedy. The music approach was also very similar to our own production of Macbeth, since we also use music for the witches lines. However the atmosphere we decided to use was very different. With our own production we used quite dark backing tracks and raps for the three witches to make their presence frightening and mystic to the audience.

Splendid productions use ukuleles to make the presence of the three witches quite light and comedic which is the exact opposite of how Shakespeare portrays the three witches. This was quite an interesting approach as it not only shocks the audience but the mood of the whole play transforms into something very light and funny. Characters that are meant to be the darkest roles in the play are turned on their heads and seen as the comedians.  

Another technique the company use to modernise the production is by keeping their own accent and one of voice. I found this very interesting as in our own production of Macbeth, keeping our own tone of voice and accent was a very important aspect of our performance and presentation. Keeping your own accent and tone of voice not only makes it easier for the audience to understand the Shakespearean language but the tone of voice is also very familiar to them or in other words it makes it more relatable.

This was also very similar to how the performer played Macbeth to how I played Macbeth too. The performer of Macbeth (Scott Smith) used his real voice and accent so much so that when watching his performance I felt as if I was watching someone in today’s day. Through his performance I able to quickly realise problems these characters faced in Shakespeare's plays are not at all different to problems we face today. Scott made his performance understandable to a contemporary audience by tackling the difficult language and telling it to his audience as it was a normal everyday story. He was able to do this by really putting in the work prior to make sure that the language of the play, would not be a barrier as to why the audience wouldn’t understand what was happening in the play.

WEEK 5 - SHAKESPEARE TODAY

Midsummer Night’s Dream - Tiff

In this modern interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the company Tiff have chosen to use lighting, colour and set as a big tool towards modernising Shakespeare’s production.

Watching the video you instantly get a feel that this interpretation is new and fresh simply by the colour palette they have chosen to use for their set. Colours such as white, black and crystal blue are used to present the cold wintery colours. This itself is quite a difference to Shakespeare’s plays as they would’ve used more earthy colours with their set and costumes e.g cream instead of white or brown instead of black. This instantly gives the contemporary audience a refreshing atmosphere as soon as they walk into the theatre.

Something that differs unusually with the modern interpretation, is that they use less set than the Shakespearean play would. Even though the amount of set they would use wasn’t an overly large amount, they would still usually hide props and set behind the stage curtains until they were needed. However in this modern interpretation you see that hardly any set is used at all and this is purely based on the fact that they can depend so much on lighting and projection.

In the video you see that the background projections help to create the scenery and adjust the mood. For example near the beginning of the clip you see that shadows and projections of branches grow around the stage to create a creepy mysterious atmosphere. They keep their use of set extremely minimal as they have the choice of using developed technology to create the illusion of set that isn’t really there.

The Shakespearean production didn’t have this option of course because of the use of advanced technology meaning they would have solely have to depend on physically having to make any set they want the audience to see. Minimalistic things even such as creating shadows would be out of the question seeing as though they didn’t have any access to lighting.

Tiff company are able to take advantage of their use of technology, put less work into creating set but having a bigger impression. Not only does this save hassle and of course quite a lot of money but this also enables the contemporary cast of performers to have more space to play about on the stage and perform. It gives the director’s a chance to completely go wild in their imagination as they are able to project literally anything they feel would help set the tone.

Twelfth Night - National Theatre

The National theatre’s modern interpretation of Twelfth Night was very bold and complex. As the show began, instantly you could tell that a lot of money had gone into creating a modern like setting with a wide range of intricate set along with a stage that was able to rotate 360 as the scene changes occurred.

Unlike the Shakesperean version, this adaptation was performed facing one direction (Thrust).

However Twelth Night when being performed in The Globe Theatre, would've still been in the same layout roughly, however still fitting in more audience members in the side section next to the stage.

In the picture above you can see that members sitting at the very sides next to the stage most likely wouldn't have been able to see much because of the restricted viewing. This wasn't at all a problem at the National Theatre as the audience members were facing the front. One restriction in the modern interpretation however was that because they fit more audience member's in, if you were sitting very far back you wouldn't be able to see much as the theatre was so big. This is a problem the Globe theatre wouldn't have experienced as their theatre isn't as large.

Another interesting adaptation of Twelfth Night that both productions used similarly, was their use of comedy. During the original performance of Twelfth Night, comedy was a lot more melodramatic. Audience members sitting at the back couldn’t see much of what the characters facial expressions were saying. Melodrama was a way of breaking the barriers of this and getting everyone to understand the comedy aspects of the play (even those sitting at the back) by over exaggerating them to a high level.

Similarly when watching the National Theatre adaptation, I felt that a lot of the comedy aspects of the play were also overplayed to a level of melodramatic acting. Physical actions were extended to an un-naturalistic level along with their voices.