inspiration in modernising our performance and post production ideas

We were shown numerous adaptations of Macbeth, but came to the conclusion that our group sort of wanted to steer away from that because we wanted our work to be unique. But we did watch the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet and quite liked the fact they were dressed modern and everything was set in modern times but the text was still dated to Shakespearean times.

We were truly inspired by the fact of having it modern because the audience members of today's generation would find it hard watching something they don't particularly understand so to make them engaged and enjoy our production we added a rap at the start when the witches say their entering lines in the very first scene. We also decided to keep costume very modern because of the inspiration to the Romeo and Juliet modern theme; although we dressed with status , we had Macbeth in a suit , most noble men like Malcolm in casual suits , i.e: shirt and blazer but no tie; lady Macbeth in a dress, and most noble women in dresses.

We kept with the conservative dress code because we weren't meant to be like street type , we still wanted to show that we had status and were in a regal setting but we didn't like the idea of suits of armour and dated clothing because it's too old fashioned we wanted this to be Macbeth 2019 not 1619.

For soundtrack ideas were really inspired by game of thrones. It is of similar genre as in there is a monarchy and there are battle scenes. It fit well when we had tense scenes such as Duncan's murder and battle scenes for example; the murderer scene and Malcolm and Macbeth's showdown.
We also used a range of modern music. There is a scene where there is a party going on at Duncan's castle and Macbeth comes on stage intoxicated, in our official production JP who played Macbeth played to the audience by dancing and he got quite a lot of jeer and hype from them. We wanted to have modern music because ether majority of young people listen to that and our main goal was to connect with the audience and help them to engage better with the old fashioned story we trying to tell. At the end , when Malcolm is crowned king , we had a song relating to crowning as it faded into a blackout. it worked really well because it added a nice finish to quite a smooth ending and the audience loved it.

During production we always had the idea of the witches entering in the first scene from the audience. As our main idea for the witches were like they were the hidden directors for the play they caused any chaos and actions for this ; they provided the prophesies it was up for the character to fulfil them , but we liked the idea that since they entered from the audience they were somewhat like an audience member watching the plot unfold as they caused it . But also the audience don't expect them to be there so they go " where did they come from?" Which the characters also ask too so it adds to the mystery and shadiness to their characters.

For the lights we liked the idea of thunder and lightning being present when the witches were on stage. It adds to the suspension of disbelief because obviously the audience know it's a play but with lightning and sound and believable acting skills , it takes it away from being a play and makes it more real for the audience.
When Macbeth killed Duncan we loved the idea that the stage lighting gets more red as the plot unfolds with each murder happening (Duncan's, Banquo's, macduff's family and young syward's) to show the fact that their guilt is getting bigger more blood is their hands and that corruption and devil like qualities is taking over.  However when Macbeth is later slayed, we liked the idea that the red would clear into a lighter blue , to evoke day time and also the fact that the castle is free from guilt and bad things happening now as it's been put to rest.

Overall I feel that our production of Macbeth worked well to a tee because we had the acting there, we had Shakespeare's work present in our speech but all that was different was the time period and clothing being modern. The audience seemed to enjoy it which is what we wanted, because that's who needs to be impressed and understand the work they came to see.

Macbeth - context and my characters

                                         

                                        Macbeth

context

Macbeth is an English tragedy play written in 1606 by English Playwright William Shakespeare.
It tells the tale of ambition and strive to achieve, supressing the consequences and committing whatever crime it takes to get what they want; thus being murder and treason. the witches represented the evil force of nature , influencing Macbeth and poring evil into his ear.
this was written in the Jacobean era in which people believed in black magic, and witch craft.
James the 1st , who was reigning at the time, had a love for ghost story's and witchery ; he would attend many witch trials which women, primarily wrongly accused of being witches whom the public believed would use their black magic to commit treason, would be burned at the stake.
Macbeth is loosely based on true events of a real life king of Scotland in the 11th century.
This Macbeth was born around 1005 and in August 1040 he killed the then reigning king Duncan in a battle near the area Elgin, Morayshire. He then became king and his marriage to Gruoch ,       Kenneth III's granddaughter made the chance of him becoming king thicker. in 1045, Macbeth defeated Duncan's father Crinan at Dunkeld. 14 years since his coronation, it is said he ruled with fairness knuckled down on law and order and encouraged Christian values. it is speculated that he was a brave and courageous leader, making many successful forays over the boarder of Northumbria, England. In 1054, Macbeth was challenged to duel with Siward, The earl of Northumbria, who tried to return his nephew Malcom Canmore, who was Duncan's son, to the throne. In August 1057, 17 years after Macbeth's triumph, Macbeth was defeated in the battle of Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire by Malcolm Canmore , [then] Malcolm III.

Mythology and biblical Allusions added to make Shakespeare's adaption of the story of the Scottish king.
Its is referred to as the morality play as the main theme of Morality and evil which recur throughout the play. Morality is the sense of good and evil and differing between the two. There is moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil can be Murder because you know what is wrong and what is right but morally know what you are doing is wrong. Natural evil can be defined as such as earthquakes and anything bad caused by something that isn't conducted by anything human. So the question of morality within the play argues whether Macbeth morally wanted to kill Duncan himself for his own ambition or whether he was swayed by his manipulative/overbearing wife or the presence of evil (the witches recurring throughout the play / the recurring theme). Obviously, he did play his part but the witches foresaw that he will inevitably become king, and it cannot be undone so no matter if Macbeth had tried to prevent the prophesy it would happen without a doubt .
Duncan also represents a Christ like figure. He quotes a line of ," I will plant thee, and will labour/ to make thee full of growing,". The idea of planting men and letting them flourish is evident in the, "Old Testament".  However since Macbeth killed Duncan he also killed the "roots" of good that had been planted. This practically means that the evil is so powerful and because Duncan represented all that is good and when his death comes it kills all things good in the world thereafter.

My characters

Witch three - The witches are the most significant because they somewhat narrate the play. They are always current at the most pivotal points, i.e.; the prophesy predicting Macbeth's crowning of king, and Macbeth enquiring what shall happen to his future in his reign (the apparition scene) Whenever the theme of morality and ambition evokes, they seem to be the ones present. They are the underlying forces in which they prepare the actions but its up to the characters to carry them out.
In terms of what we imagined them to look like; we chose capes for the witches to wear so they look sinister and seem to then be hiding their true identity - no one knows where they came from and why. We decided that they first enter from the audience, so they seem like they are watching the prophesies they dish out unfold and watching from the shadows they chaos they have caused. They play apart of the audience really because they watch the combination of their prophesies and Macbeth/Lady Macbeth's ambition and morality take its toll. Their main objective is to appear shady and cause underlying chaos without being forward or explicit.

The dying captain - Although, only on stage for a minute or so, the captain can be seen as quite pivotal. He gives an insight on the battle Macbeth just had victory in; how it didn't look that much in the early stages of the duel, but Macbeth's resilience and strategy pulled through and that he won. this will show how courageous and brave Macbeth was and that how rewarded Macbeth must be for his accomplishment. The wounded captain is essentially feeding Macbeth's ego to Malcolm and Duncan, which is the very roots for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's growing ambition. Seen as the captain is dying, he makes sure,  if this be his last breath, he puts praise and good words in for Macbeth as he now idolises him for his great show during battle. This would seem pivotal as he wasn't much worried by the fact he could be dying but he was so awestruck by the fact Macbeth triumphed that he had to tell Duncan and Malcolm, if it was the last thing he did . Because he praised him so much that was why Duncan considered him so much for the thane of Cawdor. we had a bloody shirt for the captain to wear as we wanted to convey to the audience that he was injured.

The porter - The porter scene is a comic relief, Duncan has just been murdered and to let the audience somewhat recover from misery Shakespeare added the comedic scene so it relieves the tension that had just happened at that point within the play and calms audience down with laughter. He is extremely stocious due to heavy drinking. He is strange and quite quirky. He is an underlying metaphor because he is pretending to be the gatekeeper for hell (Duncan had just been murdered). He transitions from the supernatural story to a more dramatic side to the story. He evokes imagery that since Duncan was killed that castle is now the gates of hell. Shakespeare views the castle as,"the castle of death and corruption",  due to Macbeth/lady Macbeth's murderous acts.

Murderer three - The murderer scenes are very pivotal because Macbeth is now slaughtering those whom he feels may try and get their hands on the throne. My main scene as the murderer is in the scene where Banquo is killed. We had a special man come in and run and run a workshop with us -teaching us fighting skills. for our groups production, we had to look like we were beating Banquo to death. it was very fun to do and it came across professional and felt like we were real hit men when performing as them. for this I wore my parker which seemed very military like.

attendant - this is the scene where Lady Macbeth is blurting out that she killed someone, not specifying whom, but this is when she is properly breaking down and going mad. The attendant along with the doctor notice how she "rubs her hands", (which the audience knows that she thinks her hands are coated in Duncan's blood), and she says quite a lot of things that don't make sense, yet she is fast asleep. She has gone so mad she is sleep walking, which spooks the doctor and the attendant.