Director's blog act I scene III

TAking a contemporar7y approach to teh direction of Act I scene III I have seelcted the theme of powerful manipulative women specifically Lady Macbeth and teh three witches and would like to empaphasise how using ones gender is a contributing factorr to teh evil plottings. i alos believe that a more provaocative and physcaicl interpretation of teh paly would be more accessible toa wide audience. I would have the three witches tehn to be young and attractive female showever dressed ina gothic style ina blacjk heavy grungy dresses with long dirty greasy hair, I woukd also liek tehir dresses to be revealing and for them to be very overly made up, these women shpuld allude sleaze and the darker side of sexuality. A gothic scene is established immediatley as the stage directions state, 'A Heath. Thunder', the out door setting supports the theology of witches being at one with nature and a heath suggests wildness andthe potential for supernatural forces to be at work. In addition the sound effects of thunder accompainied by a flash of a strobe light would help create the idea of ominious wetaher conditions which in turn compliment the sinister scene. I would want teh actors to be wet when performing which would create a more realistic atmosphere as well as cause their make up to run whivh would distort their faces. The first scene in which the witches are introduced is also outside, 'an open space' and there is , 'thunder and lightining', a continual dark theme is established by the time scene III is staged as the setting motif is repeated in scene III. The idea of continuity is further emphasised as a question starts scene 1, not only does this help enforce the ominous aura the witches posses but intrigues the audience as they are immediatley wondering what is the answer to said question. The witches address eachother as 'sister', which suggests a strong bond and to emphasise this bond I would place the actors very tightly to create a claustraphobic, uncomfortable and provocative atmosphere for the audience which will make an excellent setting for the brutal line, 'killing swine'. An equall short sharp delivery should be adopted by the actor to compliment the violence intended to be portrayed. The section of spech in rhyming couplets depicting teh tale of teh murdeert of a sailor is in loose rhyming couplets ansd as a adierector i would want this rhythm to be identified and used t o cretae aritualistic style chant which in turn could be complicated by movement portraying the story. not only would the steady beat make it easier for a modern audience not neccessarily familar with teh shakesperian language, but the movement teh physical representation of teh words would aid thE audience ina more wholistic understanding. Some of teh language in this riddle like section haveaggressive connotations such as, 'quarters', 'drain', 'hang' which is a direct example that could be high lighted with movement. An element of comic relief could also be introduced as weak verbs are used to describe his actions such as, 'dwindle', 'peak' 'pine', the witches could adopt awhiny voice to imitate the sailor which would be particuarly effective when delivering, 'pine' as when whining there is an element of onomatampia similar to the word 'pine'. In the line directly before Macbeth's and Banquo's, 'Peace! - teh charm's wound up', evil connattions are apparent as peace cereates a hissing sound an dteh verb wound reminds teh audience of asnake coiled up. I would direct teh actrress to embellish the hissing sound behind the delivery of the line and perhaps to curl he rfinger around her hair not aonly to draw attention to teh power of her feminimity but to symbolise the image of something being wound. In addition I would perhaps direct her throughout teh scene to have a flickering tounge to suggest sexuality and teh fact that she uses her feminomity to manipulate men and ugliness of the apparance and personality, at this point I would encourage a flick of the tounge to further the image of a snake.