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Macbeth Intensive MACBETH ONLINE LEARNING PACK National Education & Youth Partner 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). ONLINE LEARNING PACK MACBETH © Bell Shakespeare 2012 2 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 ONLINE LEARNING PACK MACBETH © Bell Shakespeare 2012 3 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 ONLINE LEARNING PACK MACBETH © Bell Shakespeare 2012 4 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. ONLINE LEARNING PACK MACBETH © Bell Shakespeare 2012 5 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.
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