Dramatisation in Macbeth -
Casting choices -
- Choices that are made regarding casting will heavily depend on the look and feel that
the director wants for the production of the play
- One of Shakespeare’s strengths is that his plays are open to a variety of interpretations,
including giving little information about how characters should look. This then means
that it will all be down to what the director thinks, making casting decisions crucial
- It will also be vital to get the right combinations of actors who will be able to work with
each other.
- The Macbeths need to work together as a couple
- Banquo is a father and the audience need to believe that Fleance is his son
- Duncan is likely to be older than the other characters
- Macduff might need to be physically different from Macbeth so that the audience can
distinguish between them more easily
The witches
- Of all the characters in Macbeth, probably the most open to different interpretations
are the witches
- They are the first characters to appear in the play and therefore set the tone of
everything that follows
- Macbeth was written and first performed at a time when fear of witches was at its
height and although there is no way of knowing exactly how the witches were originally
portrayed, they must have made an impact
- In Shakespeare’s times, women did not have the right to act on stage so men would
have played them
- However, there would have been no suggestions that the witches were not female
- Traditionally, the witches have been presented as sinister old women with evil powers.
However, modern directors would probably see this as a stereotype and would try to
find something more meaningful to today's audience
- The witches have also been presented as -
- Fortune tellers
- Voodoo priesteses
- Identical triplet sisters
- Backing singer in a rock group
- Teenage goth school girls
- Young-children on a run-down council estate
- Bin men
- Nor do there have to be just the traditional three of them. In one production there had
been thirteen witches with the actors doubling up the other parts in the play, including
Casting choices -
- Choices that are made regarding casting will heavily depend on the look and feel that
the director wants for the production of the play
- One of Shakespeare’s strengths is that his plays are open to a variety of interpretations,
including giving little information about how characters should look. This then means
that it will all be down to what the director thinks, making casting decisions crucial
- It will also be vital to get the right combinations of actors who will be able to work with
each other.
- The Macbeths need to work together as a couple
- Banquo is a father and the audience need to believe that Fleance is his son
- Duncan is likely to be older than the other characters
- Macduff might need to be physically different from Macbeth so that the audience can
distinguish between them more easily
The witches
- Of all the characters in Macbeth, probably the most open to different interpretations
are the witches
- They are the first characters to appear in the play and therefore set the tone of
everything that follows
- Macbeth was written and first performed at a time when fear of witches was at its
height and although there is no way of knowing exactly how the witches were originally
portrayed, they must have made an impact
- In Shakespeare’s times, women did not have the right to act on stage so men would
have played them
- However, there would have been no suggestions that the witches were not female
- Traditionally, the witches have been presented as sinister old women with evil powers.
However, modern directors would probably see this as a stereotype and would try to
find something more meaningful to today's audience
- The witches have also been presented as -
- Fortune tellers
- Voodoo priesteses
- Identical triplet sisters
- Backing singer in a rock group
- Teenage goth school girls
- Young-children on a run-down council estate
- Bin men
- Nor do there have to be just the traditional three of them. In one production there had
been thirteen witches with the actors doubling up the other parts in the play, including
