Monday, October 10, 2011

What are the stage directions in "Macbeth"? How do they contribute to the way the play is performed?

Stage directions in any Shakespeare play are found both in the italicized parts as well as in the speeches themselves.  Shakespeare was truly clever about this since they did not use lots of props and scenery to perform each scene...they used words to tell the audience when it was night, day, or if the moon was out or not.

For example, at the beginning of the first scene in Act I, the italics tell us that it is storming--thunder and lightning. Enter three witches.  They mention the weather in their speeches as well...all of this is to set the mood of strange and curious happenings to come. The fact that they are witches also helps create a mood of supernatural events...the stuff that thrilled Shakespeare's audiences as well as our own today.

If we skip to scene three in the same Act, you see that the witches are waiting for Macbeth, again with thunder in the background.  After they have told the tales of where they have been since their last meeting, they come together as the italics tell them to do dancing in a circle (line 31 or so), but they also say, "The Weird Sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land...the charms' wound up."  They know they need to dance and that they are chanting a charm just by these directions.  So, that tells them what tone of voice to use, and gives them directions for body language.  It helps immensely for the mood.

It is the same with all scenes and characters...go look some more! See the link below.

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