Macbeth

Initially I was worried about performing Macbeth because I know Shakespearean language can be hard to understand and that could cause the piece to not be performed as well as it could be. My worry was confirmed after I read over the play and realised there was a lot that didn’t make sense to me. To rectify this situation our teacher directed us to a website called 'No Fear Shakespeare'.

This website was extremely helpful in getting through the play, as understanding the lines allowed me to know which emotion to use behind them.






AFor our Macbeth performance, I play the role of Lady Macbeth.  Lady Macbeth is one of the main characters in the play, and is essentially the one that pushes Macbeth to commit treason against Duncan in order to become a king.

I acknowledge Lady Macbeth to be:

Committed - "We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we'll not fail."

Ambitious - "Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, greater than both by the all hail hereafter! Thy letters have transported me beyond this ignorant present and I feel now, the future in the instant."

Aggressive - "Was the hope drunk, wherein you dressed yourself? And wakes it now to look so green and so pale at what it did so freely?"

Intelligent - "I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt!"

Manipulative - "Hie thee hither that I may pour my spirits in thine ear"

Desperate - "Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe, top full of direst cruelty."

To begin developing my character I decided to watch different film versions of Lady Macbeth scenes, one from 1971, one from 2006 and one from 2010, To give me different ideas on how to portray Lady Macbeth.

Act 1 Scene 5

Lady Macbeth first appears in Act 1 Scene 5, where she is reading the letter she received from Macbeth containing the news of him becoming king and.  Knowing that Lady Macbeth is an ambitious character and is Desperate to be royalty I knew that when rehearsing and performing this scene I should show joy and excitement, not only to portray the character accurately but help the audience to understand the scene despite the unfamiliar language.

 In the early stages of rehearsal I kept my face and eyes down as I read the letter, almost unintentionally as a natural instinct when reading, however, upon realising that my facial expressions shouldn’t be overlooked at any point of the performance, I decided to pause at certain points in the scene (which I marked in my script), look up to the audience and react to the letter. This definitely improved the quality of my performance as I gave myself extra moments to portray my characterisation of Lady Macbeth. Further on in the scene, Macbeth enters, therefore, I also considered proxemics, between the student playing Macbeth and I, because I found it vital for the audience to understand the strong and loving relationship between the two characters.


Act 1 Scene 7

In this scene, Lady Macbeth rushes on to berate Macbeth for being outside while Duncan is asking

for him, making him look suspicious. I was advised through teacher feedback, to be as aggressive as possible, to show how important the plan is to Lady Macbeth (the plan to kill Duncan), therefore highlighting how strong her desire is to become queen.

This scene also shows Lady Macbeth's manipulative side, when she mentions that she has loved and  breast fed a child, but would kill the child if she promised Macbeth that she would, the same way Macbeth promised her, he would kill Duncan and take the throne; all this in an attempt to get Macbeth to go through with the plan.

Fight scenes

There are a few fight scenes in Macbeth, to bring the piece to life we participated in a stage fighting workshop.

Knowing how to use stage combat effectively would bring our piece to life and teach us a skill that could be taken into the acting industry. The  leader of the workshop taught the witches, Macbeth, Macduff and Seyward how to fight on stage and make it look realistic.

This will definitely make our production more interesting and teach valuable skills to the class. The leader of the workshop even showed us how to carry out the fight scene with and without props (swords, daggers etc.)






Rehearsals continued as usual and the closer the performance got, the more enthusiastic our group became about our characterisation and staging. I noticed that everyone was more open to giving constructive criticism and as a group we were all significantly more invested in each others acting, not just our own.

Throughout this production, I came to understand more and more how important it is to play my character even when I'm without lines, for example, in the scene where it is announced that Duncan has been killed, another member of my group suggested I turn to the audience with an excited smirk on my face while the other characters are in disbelief and sorrow.

Overall, I saw incredible commitment and well thought out characterisation. As a group we were extremely supportive of one another and continually pushed each other to put more effort in as there was always room for improvement. As an individual I noticed my confidence in my character and my stage presence increase as the rehearsals went on. Watching the performance video back, I see that I should make better use of the stage space, other than that, my vocal projection was good (something that I'm always told I need to work on), my level of characterisation allowed me to deliver the message I was trying to deliver to the audience and the nuances between Macbeth and I, heightened my ability to perform naturally.