Macbeth Intensive

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macbeth ONLINE LEARNING PACK

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CONTENTS

ABOUT BELL SHAKESPEARE 2

CREATIVE TEAM 3

SYNOPSIS 5

BACKGROUND 6

CHARACTERS 8

KEY CHARACTER PROFILES 9

THEMATIC CONCERNS OF THE PLAY 11

SET AND COSTUME DESIGN BY ANNA CORDINGLEY 15

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN KACHOYAN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 21

ONLINE RESOURCES 23

REFERENCES 24

THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS 25

ONLINE LEARNING PACK MACBETH © Bell Shakespeare 2012 1

ABOUT BELL SHAKESPEARE LEARNING

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” Hamlet (Act 4, Scene 5)

In 2012 Bell Shakespeare enters its 22nd year of bringing high quality live performance to students in schools right across Australia. This year our actors will bring to life Shakespeare’s classic stories at the Sydney Opera House right through to school halls in central Queensland. They will workshop the plays with students up on their feet experiencing the plot and characters as they are meant to be experienced. We will work with teachers to strengthen their teaching arsenal, to ensure Australian students get the best experience of Shakespeare possible. We will also continue to work with those students most in need, due to geographic isolation, language barriers and socioeconomic disadvantage.

Shakespeare was never meant to be read. At Bell Shakespeare we believe that his plays should be experienced as live performance and taught as great works that stand the test of time. We encourage new interpretations. We look for contemporary parallels to his 400-year old stories.

Bell Shakespeare highly values its partnerships with all the organisations that support our education programmes including Optus; BHP Billiton; J.P. Morgan; Australian Unity; Wesfarmers Arts; AUSTAR; Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation; Pratt Foundation; Ian Potter Foundation; IOOF Foundation; Scully Fund; James N Kirby Foundation; The Trust Company at E T A Basan Charitable Trust; Collier Charitable Fund; Australia Council for the Arts; Playing Australia; Arts NSW; Arts SA and NSW Department of Education and Training.

MACBETH Online Learning Pack Contributors: Joanna Erskine (Acting Head of Education, Bell Shakespeare), James Evans (Resident Artist in Education, Bell Shakespeare), Matt Edgerton (Arts Educator).

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CREATIVE TEAM

MACBETH

CAST

MACBETH Dan Spielman LADY MACBETH Kate Mulvany DUNCAN Colin Moody MACDUFF Ivan Donato LADY MACDUFF Katie-Jean Harding BANQUO Gareth Reeves WITCHES Lizzie Schebesta ROSS Hazem Shammas LENNOX/BLEEDING CAPTAIN Paul Reichstein MALCOLM Robert Jago ANGUS Jason Chong

CREATIVES DIRECTOR Peter Evans DESIGNER Anna Cordingley LIGHTING DESIGNER Damien Cooper LIGHTING ASSOCIATE (Canberra) Matt Cox COMPOSER/SOUND DESIGNER Kelly Ryall MOVEMENT/FIGHT DIRECTOR Nigel Poulton DRAMATURG Kate Mulvany VOCAL COACH Bill Pepper ASSISTANT DIRECTOR John Kachoyan

CREW

STAGE MANAGER Marrianne Carter ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Kelly Spice HEAD ELECTRICIAN Roderick Mackenzie HEAD MECHANIST Rob Canning WARDROBE SUPERVISOR Kate Aubrey TOURING WARDROBE Jo Beaton

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TAILOR Gloria Bava TAILORS ASSISTANT Glenndon Casey FEMALE COSTUMIERS Julie Bryant, Suzette Waters, Amanda Nichols NIDA PRODUCTION SECONDMENT Olivia Benson

SET BUILT BY Show Works ART FINISHING Simon Bowland, Patrick Jones, Rhys Chapman LIGHTING SUPPLIED BY Chameleon Touring Systems EUROTRUSS SUPPLIED BY Showtools International AUDIO SUPPLIED BY CODA Audio

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SYNOPSIS: MACBETH

Duncan, King of Scotland, is informed that his generals Macbeth and Banquo have defeated the Norwegians and Scottish rebels in battle. As they return from war, Macbeth and Banquo meet three ‘Weird Sisters.’ The Weird Sisters predict Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor, and will one day be king, and that Banquo will be the father of future kings. Macbeth is greatly impressed when Ross and Angus arrive and greet him with the title of Cawdor, proving one of the Weird Sisters’ prophecies true.

King Duncan greets Macbeth with praise, but stops short of naming him ‘Prince of Cumberland’ – successor to the throne. Instead, he bestows that title on his eldest son, Malcolm. Duncan declares he will visit Macbeth’s castle that evening. Macbeth writes to his wife telling her what has happened and of the King’s plans. Lady Macbeth, seeing the opportunity, plots with her husband to kill King Duncan when he arrives. After his initial enthusiasm for the plan Macbeth changes his mind, but Lady Macbeth persuades him to carry out the murder. Macbeth kills Duncan and returns to his wife with the bloodied daggers. She returns the daggers to Duncan’s room and smears the blood on Duncan’s sleeping servants to make it seem as if they were the murderers. Her hands are now covered in blood.

Lady Macbeth and her husband retire for the night and are disturbed by knocking at the castle gates. Macduff arrives, and has a brief exchange with the porter. He discovers King Duncan is dead, and rouses the castle. Malcolm and his brother Donalbain, fearing blame for their father’s death, flee abroad. Soon after, Ross and Macduff reflect on what has happened, and Macduff reports that Macbeth has been made King.

Macbeth is concerned for his position and arranges the murder of Banquo and his son Fleance. Banquo is killed but Fleance escapes. At dinner that night Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at the table and is terrified, much to the confusion of their guests. He decides to return to the Weird Sisters to discover his fate. They tell him he should fear Macduff, that no man of woman born can harm him and that he will never be vanquished until Birnam Wood comes to his castle at Dunsinane. They show him a vision of eight kings derived from Banquo.

Macbeth learns that Macduff has fled to England so he arranges the murder of Macduff’s wife and children. In England, Macduff meets Malcolm, who tests Macduff’s allegiance to Scotland by first painting a bleak picture of his own personality as a future king, then revealing his true character. They agree to fight together, with English support. During the meeting, Ross brings news of the murder of Macduff’s family. In Scotland, a doctor, and a gentlewoman observe Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, imagining that she cannot cleanse her hands of Duncan’s blood.

The nobles gather, and Malcolm orders his men to camouflage themselves with tree branches as they attack, thus giving the appearance of Birnam Wood approaching Dunsinane. Macbeth learns that Lady Macbeth has died and fearing no man born of woman continues to fight. He kills Young Siward and discovers Macduff was born by caesarean section. Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm is proclaimed King.

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BACKGROUND TO THE PLAY

At just over 2,100 lines, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays – just over half the length of Hamlet. It is one of his bloodiest plays, featuring six slayings plus the death of Lady Macbeth, as well as the carnage wreaked on Macduff’s household by Macbeth’s hired murderers.

The play dates from around 1606, just before Shakespeare started writing his late romances. Macbeth is the last of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, having been written after Hamlet (1600–1), Othello (1602–3) and King Lear (1605). It was written during the reign of King James I, who was the patron of Shakespeare’s playing company, the King’s Men.

Macbeth contains numerous references to the life and interests of King James, and to his reputed ancestors, including Banquo. The primary source for the play is Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles, specifically his ‘Historie of Scotland’. Holinshed describes Macbeth and Banquo as co-conspirators in the murder of Duncan, but Shakespeare is careful to recast Banquo as entirely innocent. Holinshed emphasises Lady Macbeth’s ambition and influence on her husband. He details Macbeth’s 10 years as a good and responsible ruler, albeit with a heavy reliance on witches and wizards, before being brought down by Malcolm, complete with travelling Birnam Wood.

The early performance history of Macbeth is unclear. It may have been performed for King James in 1606, though no record exists. The earliest surviving definitive account of the play is from an audience member who attended a performance at the Globe theatre in 1611.

The Weird Sisters’ comment that Banquo will found a line of kings is a direct reference to King James’s claim to have descended from eleventh-century Scottish nobleman Banquo, Thane of Lochaber. Banquo of Lochaber was thought to have been the father of the first Stuart king from whom James was descended. The play’s focus on good versus evil reflected King James’s focus on reviewing the standards in the church and producing a new English version of the Bible, known today as the King James Bible. The appearance of the Weird Sisters was in part a reflection of James’s fascination with the supernatural. In 1597 he had published a book entitled Dæmonologie, in which he argued that witches did indeed exist, and that they should be hunted down and killed.

The Weird Sisters are also part of a series of references in the play to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in which Catholic dissidents planned to assassinate King James, his son and the entire government in one explosion at the Houses of Parliament. The plot was discovered and the plotters brought to trial, during which the king carefully organised the public’s outrage, including inventing Guy Fawkes Day (Gunpowder Treason Day as it was then known). The dissidents’ act was linked to witchcraft and several plays were written in 1606–7, referring to the conspiracy.

Other links to the Gunpowder Plot in Macbeth include the murder of King Duncan, Malcolm’s testing of Macduff’s loyalty using deceptive language, and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth receiving their comeuppance for committing regicide. Also, the use of paradoxes such as ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ and elements of the Porter’s speech in Act 2 refer to the perceived ‘equivocal’ nature of Catholic beliefs.

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THE SUPERSTITION

The play is commonly referred to in theatre circles as ‘The Scottish play.’ There is considerable superstition surrounding the play. Productions have suffered botched lines, fires, injuries and even deaths. Some of these events have led to the superstition:

1606 Legend has it that the boy playing Lady Macbeth in this possible first production died backstage. 1849 A riot in front of the theatre where the play was being performed, started by two feuding actors, led to the deaths of more than 30 people. 1934 In one production of Macbeth, four actors playing Macbeth fell ill. 1936 A critic named Percy Hammond died a few days after panning a performance of the play. 1937 During the season of Macbeth with Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson, the theatre’s founder died, the director nearly died and Olivier just missed injury from falling scenery. 1938 A man lost both his legs in a car park incident outside the Stratford production of the play. The actress playing Lady Macbeth ran her car into a shop window.

Some people believe the play is cursed because Shakespeare put the spells of real witches into the play. Another theory is that such is the play’s box office appeal, if your colleagues at the theatre start mentioning Macbeth, it means that the theatre is going to stage Macbeth to make money and your show is about to close.

Coping with the superstition

To avoid the legendary curse, many actors still refer to Macbeth as ‘The Scottish Play’. If the name of the play is spoken inside a theatre, there are various actions that are said to counteract the curse. One tradition holds that the actor who utters ‘Macbeth’ must leave the theatre building, turn around three times on the spot, spit, swear, and then knock to be allowed back in.

Macbeth on film and TV

Mark Brozel (BBC Productions), Macbeth: Shakespeare Retold (2007) Geoffrey Wright’s Macbeth (2006), with Sam Worthington as Macbeth Jack Gold’s Macbeth (1983), for BBCTV Trevor Nunn’s Macbeth (1979), with Dame Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth and Sir Ian McKellen as Macbeth, for the Royal Shakespeare Company Roman Polanski’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971) Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957) Orson Welles’s Macbeth (1948), starring Welles in the title role

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CHARACTERS

Diagram from Crystal, D. and Crystal, B., (2002) Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary and Language Companion

The Royal House of Scotland ROSS DUNCAN, King of Scotland LENNOX MALCOLM, his elder son MENTETH DONALBAIN, his younger son ANGUS CATHNESS Thanes & their households MACBETH, Thane of Glamis, later Thane of The Supernatural World Cawdor, later King of Scotland THE WEIRD SISTERS, Three witches LADY MACBETH, his wife HECATE, Queen of Witchcraft BANQUO THREE APPARITIONS FLEANCE, Banquo’s son MACDUFF, Thane of Fife The English LADY MACDUFF, his wife SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland SON OF MACDUFF YOUNG SIWARD, his son GENTLEWOMAN, Lady Macbeth’s attendant DOCTOR, LORDS, SOLDIERS, GENTLEMEN, SEYTON, Macbeth’s armour bearer ATTENDANTS, MESSENGER PORTER, at Macbeth’s castle AN OLD MAN CAPTAIN, wounded in battle DOCTOR 1ST, 2ND & 3RD MURDERER

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KEY CHARACTER PROFILES

Macbeth Macbeth is first referred to by the wounded captain, ‘For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name’ (1: 1:16). In this same conversation Duncan says of Macbeth and Banquo, ‘They smack of honour both’. (1:1:43) This ‘honourable’ ‘brave’ man first appears in Scene 3 when he meets the Weird Sisters. He is frightened by them: Banquo says, ‘Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear/ things that do sound so fair?’ (1: 3: 51–52)

When it comes time to kill Duncan, Macbeth has doubts. He decides not to go through with it, but is swayed by his wife, Lady Macbeth. After Duncan’s murder Macbeth is sometimes strong and determined and sometimes overawed by guilt. He determines his friend Banquo must be murdered – he knows too much. Yet upon seeing Banquo’s ghost at the banquet Macbeth is wracked with guilt and fear.

At the end of the play the audience again sees the brave Macbeth as he soldiers on to the end and faces the final battle. His strength at this point stems from his confidence in the witches’ prophecies.

Macbeth is often considered a tragic hero – contributing to his own demise by some moral weakness. Macbeth’s tragic flaw is “vaulting ambition”. Unlike Romeo, Othello or Brutus, Macbeth does not contemplate suicide when his situation is grim. He even says,’ Why should I play the Roman fool and die/ On my own sword’. (5:10:1-2). Macbeth is also, of course, a villain, though perhaps not as evil as other Shakespearean villains like Iago in Othello, King Richard III in Richard III or Edmund in King Lear. Macbeth struggles with his own conscience throughout the play, whereas these other villains do not.

Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s best known and most complex female characters. She plots the murder of the king and pushes her husband into the deed when he is having second thoughts. She is more ambitious than Macbeth, although in this patriarchal society of Medieval Scotland, she needs to attach her rise to that of her husband. She says, ‘Unsex me here’ (1: 4:39), highlighting her desire for masculine power. Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to challenge Macbeth’s all-male world. She manipulates him throughout the play and strongly challenges his manhood as a means of stirring him into action.

Lady Macbeth does not manage to maintain her strength and composure. After the murder Macbeth gathers his strength and attempts to overcome his guilt as he strives to maintain a grip on the kingdom. Lady Macbeth suffers the same guilt that plagues Macbeth but it drives her insane. Sleepwalking through the castle, wiping invisible blood from her hands: ‘out out damn spot’ (5:1:30) is the climax of her madness.

The Weird Sisters The Weird Sisters open the play and set up the dark, sinister tone of Macbeth. Although they refer to each other as ‘Sister’ (1:3:1 and 3) and collectively call themselves the ‘weird sisters’ (1: 3:30), they are most often known as ‘The witches.’ The witches are enormously powerful in their manipulation of Macbeth, yet they do not actually cast a spell on him; they only deliver predictions and conjure up apparitions to show him. The witches often speak in a different rhythm to other characters in the play. Instead of pentameter, they use tetrameter (four beats to a line) when chanting or casting spells. Shakespeare often used this form for magical or supernatural characters throughout his work.

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Banquo Banquo is a general and witnesses the Weird Sisters with Macbeth. He could be considered Macbeth’s best friend. Macbeth acts on the Weird Sisters’ prophecy, whereas Banquo does not. According to the witches’ prophecy, Banquo’s children will inherit the Scottish throne. After Macbeth kills him, Banquo’s ghost haunts Macbeth at the royal banquet table.

King Duncan King Duncan is the epitome of a noble and virtuous leader, although naïve and unaware of the true character of his followers. He has two sons, Malcolm – his anointed successor – and Donalbain. Duncan is murdered in his sleep by Macbeth, while a guest at Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s castle. His death reflects the destruction of order in Scotland. Order will only be restored when Malcolm, a descendant of King Duncan’s line, occupies the throne.

Macduff Macduff is another nobleman in the play and his title is the Thane of Fife. He is suspicious of Macbeth’s rise to the throne from the beginning. Macbeth orders the murder of Macduff’s wife and son. Macduff leads the crusade to unseat Macbeth and to place Malcolm, the rightful king, on the throne. He also seeks revenge for the murder of his wife and young son.

Malcolm Malcolm is the elder son of King Duncan. He is anointed Prince of Cumberland by his father in Act 1. After Duncan is murdered, Malcolm escapes to England, fearing he may be killed next. Later, in league with Macduff, Malcolm becomes a serious threat to Macbeth’s reign. After Macduff kills Macbeth at the end of the play, Malcolm assumes the throne, promising to get “even” with both friends and enemies.

Fleance Banquo’s young son. Fleance escapes the murderers, sent by Macbeth, who kill his father. It is not clear where he is at the end of the play, yet the audience is left to assume that he or his children may come to rule Scotland one day, as in the Weird Sisters’ prophecy.

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THEMATIC CONCERNS

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Loyalty and trust

King Duncan believes that Macbeth is loyal to him, yet it is Macbeth who murders him. Banquo trusts his loyal friend Macbeth, yet is also murdered by him.

Macbeth is most commonly considered a work about driving ambition and a lust for power. However, trust and loyalty are also under scrutiny. What if Macbeth did not believe a word of the witches’ prophecies? In a manner of speaking Macbeth trusts the witches’ words as these spur him on in his ambitious drive to be king. Macbeth trusts his wife. She encourages him to murder King Duncan. She challenges his manhood as a means of forcing him into action. By agreeing to the bloody course of action, Macbeth does not trust his own judgement, even after he has just talked himself out of the act in a lengthy soliloquy:

He’s here in double trust; First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. (1.7.12–16)

Lady Macbeth and King Duncan exchange pleasantries when he arrives at the Macbeth castle. Duncan speaks with flattery and courtesy:

How you shall bid God yield us for your pains And thank us for your trouble. (1.6.14–15)

He trusts his hostess. Lady Macbeth’s flattery, however loyal on the surface, hides a sinister purpose:

All in our service, In every point twice done and then done double, Were poor and single business to contend Against those honours deep and broad wherewith Your majesty loads our house. For those of old, And the late dignities heaped up to them, We rest your hermits. (1: 6:15–21)

Lady Macbeth is being polite in her comment, ‘rest your hermits’. This means ‘pray for you constantly’, but this reference could be masking her intention to put Duncan closer to God, ie. to kill him.

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Betrayal and deception

The two most obvious betrayals are Macbeth’s betrayal of King Duncan and of his best friend Banquo. However, the concept of betrayal runs much deeper: betrayal of office, betrayal of friendship, betrayal of trust, betrayal of truth and betrayal of justice.

In Macbeth, characters believe that what they see may be fair or good but in most instances this is not the case. They are deceived by appearances.

King Duncan speaks the following lines when arriving at Macbeth’s castle:

This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses. (1: 6)

The castle is by no means a pleasant place for him to be.

Macbeth perceives the prophecies made by the “armed head” and the “bloody child” are good omens. He later discovers that these prophecies are deceptive wordplays that foretell his own downfall. The tactic of Malcolm is to use the trees of the forest as cover, and thus for Macbeth ‘Birnam Wood does come to Dunsinane’. Macduff was, in fact, born of a caesarian section and therefore is ‘not of woman born’.

Lady Macbeth betrays her womanhood by calling on the spirits to ‘unsex’ her as she seeks masculine strength in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy.

Ambition

Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth’s letter with delight: ‘Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be/What thou art promised’ (1.5.13–14). On the basis of his letter she indicates to the audience that she wants him to be ambitious and follow the witches’ prophesy. Yet she also reveals she doubts he has the drive to fulfill this:

Yet do I fear thy nature, It is too full of the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it. (1.5.14–17)

Lady Macbeth cajoles her husband, playing on the ambition she knows he has:

Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! (1:5.52–3)

Macbeth’s soliloquy once King Duncan is ensconced in his home reveals that Macbeth recognises his own ambitious nature:

I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on th’other – (1:7. 25–8)

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Lady Macbeth enters at the end of Macbeth’s soliloquy and he soon buries the moral arguments he has been toying with:

I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show: False face must hide what the false heart doth know. (1.7.79–82)

Appearance and reality

Lady Macbeth believes her husband to be a bad actor, too transparent in his responses – “Your face my thane, is as a book where men may read strange pictures” (1:5). She constantly urges her husband to conceal his true intentions: “Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t” (1:5). He must “look up clear” and not “alter favour” (1:5). On being resolved to the murder, Macbeth echoes the sentiment “False face must hide what the false heart doth know” (1:7). Despite their performances, others suspect their intentions: “There’s daggers in men’s smiles” Donalbain tells his brother (2:3). Eventually Lady Macbeth can no longer conceal the truth. The secrets she has concealed come bursting forth in her night time confessions.

Pictures are used by Lady Macbeth to describe insubstantial fears. Duncan’s body is “a painted devil” (2:2), being unable to move or hurt her, although of course her participation in the murder does wound her deeply. Macbeth’s vision of Banquo is similarly dismissed by his wife as “the very painting of your fear.” (3:4)

Sleep

A strong theme in the play, sleep and the lack of it spurs on the angst, confusion and destruction. The first mention of sleep is when King Duncan comes to stay. He is killed in his sleep, after which Macbeth returns to his chamber and says he thought he heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more” (2:2:38). Immediately after this, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth cannot sleep. Some interpret this as a clue that Macbeth develops permanent insomnia, and in fact never sleeps again. Soon after the murder, in another part of the castle, Macbeth’s Porter rants about his sleep being disturbed by a loud knocking at the gate: “Here’s a knocking indeed!” (2:3:1)

Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, revealing truths to her audience both within the scene and watching the play concluding with “What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.” (5.1.57–8)

Blood

Blood is a recurring theme in Macbeth, and the play opens with a bloody battle described by a wounded captain to King Duncan. At the appearance of the captain, Duncan says “What bloody man is that?” The loss of blood and survival, is synonymous with heroism in battle. In fact blood is the main image in Macbeth’s imagination, his primary obsession: “It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.” (3:4)

When Lady Macbeth plots to kill Duncan, she calls upon the spirits of murder to “make thick my blood; /Stop up the access and passage to remorse” (1:5:43-44). Blood was thought to be thickened by poison, hence Lady Macbeth wants to poison her own soul so that she is able to kill Duncan without remorse.

Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes to symbolise their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be washed clean. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” Macbeth cries after he has killed Duncan, even as his wife scolds him and says that a little water will do the job (2.2.58–59). Later, though, she comes to share his horrified sense of being stained: “Out, damned spot; out, I say... who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” she asks as she sleepwalks near the close of the play (5.1.30–34). Blood symbolises the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that hounds them to their graves.

SET AND COSTUME DESIGNS BY ANNA CORDINGLEY

Diagram 1 Set design – black & white rendering by Anna Cordingley

SET AND COSTUME DESIGNS BY ANNA CORDINGLEY Diagram 2 Set design – Model Box detail by Anna Cordingley

INTERVIEW WTH JOHN KACHOYAN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Joanna Erskine, Acting Head of Education, in conversation with John Kachoyan, Assistant Director (Bell Shakespeare’s Director in Residence).

Can you tell us about your role in the creative team?

Well, I’m the Assistant Director to Peter Evans. It’s a really varied role that changes depending on the nature of the show and the needs of each director. Broadly, I am there to support Peter and the creative team in making the best production possible – often doing research, providing a sounding board for ideas and working with the actors to help them create their performances.

What is your history with the play?

I was actually in a high-school production as Duncan doubling with the Porter so that was fun. I also studied it for English, so the play has been in my head for a long time. It’s always been one of my favourite plays – it’s so efficient – the plot drives forward and I think audiences really respond to that purity.

Do you subscribe to the superstitions theory?

Um, no – not really, I think there’s a pretty interesting history of bad things happening in lots of different plays – some more so even than Macbeth – so I wouldn’t single it out. I think it’s more that theatres were dark, cramped places filled with flammable and droppable things – so if you take a play taking place mostly in darkness there’s bound to be some bumps and accidents. That said, theatre people do have many superstitions!

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays. What do you think is the biggest misconception about the play that people have?

I think there’s an idea that this is a play only about ambition, sort of for its own sake, a kind of flat and heartless evil – and what I really feel is interesting is as usual, Shakespeare’s playing with many ideas and exploring them through the whole play – as a kind of prism – so there’s fascinating observations on the effect of trauma on a couple, on the nature of guilt, isolation, imagination and the power of our own minds to delude, illuminate and project our darkest fears and deepest desires into our waking world.

Give us a snapshot of life in the rehearsal room. Is there a typical day for the cast and crew?

Yes – there’s actually a lot of structure. Peter is working with Nigel Poulton using the work of Meyerhold to give the cast a physical language on stage, and underpin that with a philosophy of sorts – so we start each day with a 1.5 hours or warm-ups, focus work and very physical exercise. Then there’s voice work with Bill Pepper. The bulk of the day is then spent on ‘scene work’ moving the text, exploring ideas on the stage, building the play itself. Around that every morning and evening is sword work with the characters involved in the fight scenes – which involves some serious long-sword training.

Can you tell us a bit about Peter Evans’ directorial vision for the play?

I think Peter is very interested in the Macbeth’s as a couple and he’s drawn to this amazing portrait of two people as the descend into darkness – together and finally separately. The critic Harold Bloom suggests that they are the happiest married couple in all of Shakespeare’s work (at least

initially) and so it’s a lot more dramatic to watch fully realised people in a deep relationship falling apart because of their actions and those consequences, than it is to watch a scheming woman and a madman slaughter people. Peter is also fascinated I think with the ‘witchey’ elements of the play – of what’s scary now for us as an audience, how do we feel about prophecy and the unseen world.

What are you most excited about in this production? What do you think audiences will be surprised by?

I’m most excited to see the audience’s responses to Peter and the team’s work. Dan Spielman and Kate Mulvany in particular as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are making some amazing choices that I think really challenge our ideas about what the play ‘is’ or how a scene ‘should’ be played. There are some adaptations also that I think clarify and focus the play’s vision even further – it’s just relentless, haunting but you can’t turn away. I think audiences will be surprised to love and see the love in the Macbeth’s relationship and most interested to see the show’s vision for the Weird Sisters...

And finally, why do you think we’re still staging this play hundreds of years later? What’s its appeal?

There’s something amazing about watching someone change in front of you – live – on stage. And to go with that journey as willing or interested participants ourselves. There’s poetry and beauty in Macbeth’s haunting images and we’ve all at some time imagined a future for ourselves and wanted it to materialise now. The Macbeth’s simply action that intention, obviously with dire consequences, but I think that feeling of railing against time, fate and destiny speaks to the human condition. There’s also a lot of gut-wrenching scenes, mother’s protecting children, father’s fighting for sons and a couple falling apart which are heart-wrenching and speak to us and future generations.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Bell Shakespeare has created a series of interviews with the cast and creatives of Macbeth, available on our Youtube channel. Interviews will be uploaded on a weekly basis in the lead up to the production opening. Visit www.youtube.com/bellshakespeare to access these insights from behind the scenes.

REFERENCES

Bayley, P, (1985) An A-B-C Of Shakespeare, Longman Group, UK

Chubbuck, I, (2005) The Power Of The Actor, Currency Press, Australia

Crystal, David & Crystal Ben, (2002) Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary & Language Companion, Penguin Books, London

Gibson, R. (Ed.), (1993) Cambridge School Shakespeare Macbeth, Cambridge University Press, UK

Gibson, Rex, (2000) Stepping Into Shakespeare, Cambridge University Press, UK

Rozakis, L, (1999) The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Shakespeare, Penguin, USA

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LEADING PARTNERS

National Education Regional Communities & Youth Partner Partner National Education Mainstage Arts Regional Communities & Youth Partner Partner Partner

MAJOR PARTNERS MAJOR PARTNERS

NSW Education Partner Perth Season Partner Nsw Education Partner Official Wellbeing Partner Leadership Partner King Lear

SUPPORTING PARTNERS SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Supporting Local Communities Official Wellbeing Partner Leadership Partner Supporting VIC Arts Education WA Season Partner Special Projects Partner The School For Wives COMPANY PARTNERS

COMPANY PARTNERS

Special Event Partner Special Event Partner Media Partner Radio Partner

Special Event Partner Special Event Partner Accommodation Partner Legal Partner

Accommodation Partner Legal Partner Community Partner Public Affairs Advisors Melbourne

COMMUNITYCommunity Partner PARTNERS Public AffairsGOVERNMENT Advisors PARTNERS Creative Partner

The following organisations, trusts and foundations are supporting our national education initiatives: community PARTNERS government PARTNERS The Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation Bell Shakespeare is Bell Shakespeare is assisted by the The Australian Government is proud to assisted by the NSW Australian Government through the be associated with Bell Shakespeare Colonial Foundation Government through Australia Council, its arts funding through the national performing arts The following Ian Potter organisations, Foundation trusts and Arts NSW. and advisory body. touring programme, Playing Australia, foundations are supporting our national which gives Australians across the country the opportunity to see some Scullyeducation Fund and creative development initiatives: of our best performing arts. James N Kirby Foundation Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation Bell Shakespeare is Bell Shakespeare is assisted by the The Australian Government is proud to be TrustPratt FoundationCompany ATF Archer assisted by the NSW Australian Government through the associated with Bell Shakespeare through CollierIan Potter Charitable Foundation Fund Government through Australia Council, its arts funding the national performing arts touring J S Love Trust Arts NSW. and advisory body. programme, Playing Australia, which Sidney Myer Fund gives Australians across the country the BesenIOOF Foundation Family Foundation opportunity to see some Scully Fund Bell Shakespeare Education Bell Shakespeareof our best performing arts. is supported by the Australian Education is assisted by The Trust Company atf Government through the Department the NSW Government E T A Basan Charitable Trust Bell Shakespeareof Education, Learning Employment and through the NSW is assistedWorkplace by the NRelationsSW under the Quality Department of James N Kirby Foundation Outcomes Programme. Education and Training. Government through Collier Charitable Fund the NSW Department of Education and Training.