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books 9 SUNDAY MAY 25, 2003 SECTION
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THE FOREST C OMES TO
MACB ETH BY JUDITH NEWMARK
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Post-Dispatch Theater Critic
W
ishing, most of us learn to our considerable relief, cannot make anything so. Except in the world of “Macbeth.” Every parent has comforted a child with the reminder that it’s OK to think “bad thoughts,” that things in your head can’t really hurt anyone. But in “Macbeth,” the jump from a wicked thought to dangerous deed is almost instantaneous. Wishing does make it so. No wonder it’s the scariest show in the whole Shakespeare STAGE canon. The DIRECTIONS Scottish play, this year’s proA guide to duction at the essential Shakespeare festival Festival of St. Louis, tells a information, story of ambiincluding a tion run wild. It map and follows the parking tips, bloody career details on food of a nobleman and vendors, who commits and a preview murders, first to raise himself of the “green to a higher posishow” tion and then to See F5 try to secure it, always with the encouragement of his ruthless, passionate wife. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are impossible to admire. And yet they dominate the action almost to the exclusion of everyone else; Shakespeare must have found them irresistible. As do we, their audience. Why? To answer that question, maybe we ought to ask ourselves what we always find irresistible. How about a mirror? In Macbeth, the most suggestible hero in Shakespeare, we find a man who brings our own childhood fears to bloody life: His bad thoughts become his bad deeds. We don’t all do the kinds of things Macbeth does. But if we’re honest, we probably all have thought about them. “I have seen that (invisible) dagger before me,” confesses Rick Sordelet, director of the outdoor production in Forest Park. “Who hasn’t? “Who hasn’t been skipped over for a promotion and dreamed of killing the boss, or lost a house and imagined stabbing the loan officer? “Or how about the Oscars? The losers act gracious, but if looks could kill, you know those winners would have died a thousand horrible deaths. “What separates us from Macbeth is that we pull back. But he never does. He’s us without restraint. So we can’t help but root for him.” In his incisive and immensely helpful book “Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human,” Professor Harold Bloom of Yale makes the point that if “Macbeth” focuses almost entirely on characters who do wrong, it doesn’t make much of a case against wrongdoing; fascinaSee Macbeth, F5
MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
BANQUO
DUNCAN
MALCOLM
MACDUFF
THE WEIRD SISTERS
A Scottish nobleman and warrior of great ambition
His ruthless wife, just as ambitious as he is
Another nobleman, Macbeth’s comrade-in-arms
The king of Scotland
Duncan’s son and heir
A nobleman and comrade, who loves his wife and children
Practitioners of witchcraft who can see into the future
ACT 1
ACT 2
ACT 3
ACT 4
ACT 5
The witches predict Macbeth will be king
Macbeth murders Duncan and ascends to the throne
Macbeth has Banquo killed, then sees his ghost
Macbeth feels better after the witches make another prediction
Macduff skewers Macbeth and Malcolm becomes king
WAR RAVAGES SCOTLAND, under attack from local rebels and outside invaders. A noble warrior — Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis — leads King Duncan to bloody victory. As Macbeth and his friend Banquo head home from the battlefield, they stumble on the Weird Sisters — three witches! — in the dark!
MACBETH IS SO UPSET, he sees an imaginary knife that seems to lead him to the king’s bedroom. Lady Macbeth drugs the guards so her husband can stab the king in his sleep.
BANQUO HAS DOUBTS, too. After all, he also heard the Weird Sisters! Banquo can practically guess what happened — and Macbeth knows that he can. Macbeth hires a couple of thugs to kill Banquo. They stab him over and over, then leave his body in a ditch.
The Weird Sisters give them a mysterious message. They tell Macbeth that he will rule Cawdor, another part of Scotland, plus his own land, Glamis. One day he will be King of Scotland, too! They tell Banquo that he won’t be king, but that his heirs will be. Just moments later, Macbeth finds out that Duncan has already made him Thane of Cawdor, to thank him for the victory. The sisters are right! Are they right about everything?
Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis
WHERE: Forest Park, near the St. Louis Art Museum HOW MUCH: Free
Another thane, Macduff, comes to talk to the king. Macbeth acts as though everything’s fine and lets Macduff find Duncan’s body. Then Macbeth, pretending to go crazy with grief, kills the guards, too.
▲ The king and all the thanes come to Macbeth’s castle to celebrate. Lady Macbeth talks her husband into killing the king that very night!
It’s a scary night, but their promises calm down Macbeth. After all, woods can’t move, and it sounds as if no one can kill him, either. He can do anything he wants!
▲ In the meantime, Lady Macbeth acts as if nothing’s wrong. She even gives a big party! But at the party Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost! Since nobody else can see this terrifying sight, it looks as though Macbeth has lost his mind.
Macbeth sends his wife a letter with the news. Lady Macbeth can’t wait. She’s in a hurry to see her husband crowned.
“Macbeth” WHEN: Preview performances on Thursday and Friday and opening performance on Saturday. Performances continue every night but Tuesdays through June 15. Food service begins at 6 p.m.; green show at 7 p.m.; performance at 8 p.m.
Holding the bloody knives, Macbeth tells his wife it’s all over. He’s very upset, so she tells him to wash up while she calmly takes the daggers and smears blood on the guards. But Macbeth thinks that all the water in the ocean wouldn’t be enough to wash the blood off his hands.
▲ The king’s son Malcolm and his brother figure that whoever killed their father will go after them next. They run away. That makes them look guilty! The thanes choose Macbeth to be their new king. But Macduff has started to wonder what really happened. He goes away alone.
WORN OUT FROM GUILT and lack of sleep, Macbeth goes off to find the Weird Sisters in the dark. They brew a potion that reveals magic visions. They tell Macbeth that he will be safe until the woods come to his castle, that he can’t be killed by any man born of woman and that he should watch out for Macduff.
After she gets rid of the guests, Lady Macbeth tries to comfort her husband. But he’s too upset. Even though he saw a ghost, Macbeth was aware of what was really going on — and he noticed that Macduff didn’t come to the party. That makes him suspicious. He knows that he’s not through with killing.
NOW LADY MACBETH is acting strange, too. She walks and talks in her sleep, and she washes her hands over and over. She sees an imaginary bloodstain on them! Macbeth’s got his own hands full defending the throne. A big army has gathered to attack! Lady Macbeth kills herself as the army arrives. But it doesn’t look like an army — it looks like a moving forest! It’s just camouflage, but Macbeth doesn’t know that. He knows what the Weird Sisters told him about woods that can move, so he puts on his armor. Macbeth finds himself sword to sword with his old friend, Macduff. As they fight, Macduff gives Macbeth a terrible shock: When he was born, he was delivered by Caesarean section! So in a way, Macduff wasn’t born of woman after all! He’s the only one who can kill Macbeth — and he does!
▲ So when he finds out that Macduff is in England with Malcolm, Macbeth sends an attack squad to his castle. They murder Macduff’s wife, his children and his servants, and destroy everything he owns. When Malcolm and Macduff hear the awful news, Malcolm promises his friend Macduff that they’ll get even. The king of England will help them topple Macbeth and bring peace to Scotland.
▲ After the battle, Macduff proudly presents the head of Macbeth to Malcolm. Malcolm will be king now, and he promises to rule better than Macbeth and Lady Macbeth — that “butcher” and his “fiendlike queen” — ever did.
THE CHARACTERS SPEAK “Screw your courage to the sticking place.” – Lady Macbeth
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand?” – Macbeth
“It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.” – Macbeth
“Double, double toil and trouble, / Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”
“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” – Lady Macbeth
– The Weird Sisters
MORE INFO: 314-361-0101 Text by JUDITH NEWMARK, graphic by JOHN D. TELFORD / POST-DISPATCH