Macbeth Adaption, Notes

Central Concept:

Madness. Damnation. Freudian archetypes.

The central assumption that this interpretation of Macbeth was built around, was that since the instigators of Macbeth's betrayal and treason, were his wife, and the witches, what if they were in fact the same person? What if Macbeth was mad? Answering these questions formed the kernel that this adaptation was built around. In answering it I went from assuming that I would put the production in 11^th century Scotland, where superstitious explanations,were used for real-world phenomena, until I settled on putting it in a modern psych ward, where a deranged doctor, is using personal superstition, to justify real-world atrocities. One of the major things that this adaptation does right, is dive into the heart of Macbeth's character, his mad, ruinous ambition, and offer a viable easy to-understand reason for WHY he did what he did, that does not depend on magic. Macbeth, did what he did, because the instigator of his violence, and betrayal of trust, was his primal, subconscious Id (portrayed by the weird sisters AND Lady Macbeth). For whatever reason you could care to invent, his rational self is rather quickly cut out of having influence in his decision making process, as shown by the murder of his Ego, (Banquo) by a specific choice that his Super-ego (Macbeth) made.

Location:

This adaptation of Macbeth has THREE major locations.

The Ward, The Office, and The Dreaming.

The Ward:

A mental health institution that treats inpatients, and is built into a local hospital It is a relatively closed facility, with admittance to visitors only permitted by authorized medical staff during approved weekday visiting hours. Thus on the weekends, only the staff, and the admitted in-patients are physically present, making the ward it's own, independent world as far as most of the patients are concerned, as most have few, if any visitors. The geographic location is nebulous, but has the appearance of serving primarily poor-to-middle class Americans.

The Office:

The Doctor's office, where he meets patients for one-on-one consultations, therapy and to settle on prescriptions and treatment plans. It should have desk, several seats, some books, and have a professional tone to it. It has a physical door to The ward, but has an line separating it from The Dreaming, that is where one of the walls should be. In general, the projections from the dreaming can cross the line, into the office when needed, but no-one from The Ward, including the Doctor, can ever set foot into the Dreaming. Thematically The office is a half-way point between the madness inside The Doctor, and physical reality. You may wish to have some design “bleed” from The Dreaming spill into the physical space of “the office” in way of color patterns and the like.

The Dreaming.

This is an interior “thought-scape” where much of the action and dialogue of this adaption will take place. It is to be clearly shown as a manifestation of The Doctor's inner psyche, as no other character from The Ward will have any interactions of any sort with any of the character's in The Dreaming. While characters in The Dreaming, may when appropriate wander into the office, any character other than The Doctor will ignore their presence, not hear their voice and act in every manner as if they are present, because as far as they are concerned, they don't exist.

The set of the dreaming, is supposed to be a trippy stream of consciousness version of Macbeth. As such, intentionally leaving parts poorly painted, colored in odd ways, if done to accentuate the idea of madness, may help. Additionally all of the Doctor's “projections” have full license to be anachronistic. While Shakespeare's Macbeth was produced in the 16^th century, to represent an 11^th century event, The Doctor, is quite clearly not an expert on that period. His Projections should all look “mideval-ish” but no heavy demands on accuracy are required, due to the nature of the play. Hell, if you find a good excuse to send an actor in 11^th century garb, with an wristwatch on DO IT.

As the entirety of the actions traditionally associated with Macbeth needs to be shown on the set of the dreaming, go quick and dirty on the scene changes/props on that part of the stage. Have easily moved backdrops, seats, props etc. It may even be permissible to have stage hands walk in and change them visible to the audience. Again, the Dreaming is an place of primal madness. Nothing is off limits there, and you need to show that anyway you can.

Time:

Contemporary, difficult to determine the exact date, as once admitted the patients have little reference to the outside world, and many of the staff are too busy with work/family duties to have much connection to the outside world. The staff also follow a strict policy of not talking current politics or religion with their patients. The current season seems to be winter/Christmas as indicated by the fake Christmas tree on set.

Macbeth Character list.

The Doctor:

An psychiatrist, who has gone delusional, and is self-narrating the play of Macbeth, while on the job. His Macbeth persona, is in a mindscape connected to his office on stage. The Doctor narrates all of the Psych ward staff's “responses” to his Macbeth persona, when they are on stage with him, presumably under his breath, or in his thoughts. Several of the “persona's” that are characters in the Macbeth play that represent parts of his own personality, are also voiced by him, notably Lady Macbeth, The Murderers, Banquo, and The Weird Sisters. As the play progresses it is revealed that The Doctor, is acting out the part of Macbeth in reality, starting with the murder of an Elvis Impersonator, who has the misfortune as being labeled as “the King” by the doctors.

Personas

Primary:

Macbeth Super-ego

Banquo Ego

Lady Macbeth-The Weird Sisters Id

Self-Projections

The Murderers

External Projections

The Sergeant/The Policeman

King Duncan/”The King”

Macduff/The Badass Nurse

Young Siward/Red Scrubs #2

Macduff's Son/Red Scrubs #1

Lady Macduff/Blue Scrubs

Servants-Projections-Scrubs

All characters from the original Macbeth, with spoken lines, other than The Porter.

The Enigma

Fleance/The Porter who break the rules of The Ward, and The Dreaming

Personas

The Doctor's Persona's are all aspects of his personality, that he has associated directly with characters from Macbeth. as such, in his mindscape it is less that they are being directed by him, but more that their actions in his mind, are directing his “real world” actions.

Primary:

The Doctor's “primary” persona's each represent classic Freudian Archetypes. Id, Ego, and Super-Ego

As they are all essentially different “aspects” of The Doctor, while they are each voiced by their respective actor's to avoid confusion, they all have a separate physical “tell” or shared element on their costume, that is also on The Doctor's costume, to identify them as being part of his psyche.

Macbeth/Super-Ego

Macbeth is The Doctor's Super Ego, which in Freudian theory is the entity that chooses between the primal desires of the Id, and the more rational concerns of the Ego. The doctor's ego is clearly shown to be leaning towards the desires of it's Id in this play, and as it progresses, the Ego eventually loses most of it's hold on The Doctor, as symbolized by Banquo's “murder”

Banquo/Ego

Banquo is The Doctor's Ego, which in Freudian theory is the rational, composed part of a mind. In this capacity, Banquo is clearly also taking the role of Macbeth's conscience, telling him over and over “whoa, you don't really want to do that, right?” As The Doctor slips into further into murder, madness, and the desires of his ID, his Ego is symbolically “murdered”. Later in the play, a phantom the “ghost” of Banquo appears, to try to regain the influence of rationality on The Doctor, but by that point The Doctor has intentionally cast aside sanity, and has surrendered completely to his ID.

Lady Macbeth-The Weird Sisters/Id

Lady Macbeth, and the Weird Sisters, are collectively The Doctor's Id, which in Freudian theory is the primal, emotional, impulsive part of the human mind. In this capacity, they represent sexuality, desire for acknowledgment, bloodlust, and his survival urges, as well his guilt, shame, and fear. It is intended that Identical triplets (or females that can pass off as such) be cast as the Weird Sisters, and that one or more of them, also play the role of Lady Macbeth. This is to cement that they are all part of the same primal part of the mind that The Doctor, has surrenders to. One might also wonder if The Doctor, has a female representation of his Id, due to repressed sexual desire, and by extension gains a form of sexual gratification by his acts of murder.

Self-Projections

The Murderer's

The Murderer's are an “external projection” of The Doctor's violent actions. When they come in play, they take the command by his super-ego, to kill (silence) the persona of his Ego, Banquo, so that he can attempt to murder again, notably The Porter, and Red Scrubs #1.

External Projections:

Each and every single one of these characters, are mental representations of “other” people that The Doctor knows from work, both co-workers and patients. As such, they all have one trait in common. While the lines of their respective real-world counterparts are lip-synched by their actors, (with a few exceptions, such as screams, crying and death throes) the “External Projections” Shakespearean Dialogue is all given by The Doctor, showing that while the real world counterparts of these Projections are speaking to him he is “putting words into their mouths” that match his internal view of reality. most of the External Projections should be played by twins where possible, or passable body-doubles when not, or cost prohibitive, of their respective “real world” counterparts.

The Sargent/The policeman

The Doctor, seeing the policeman uniform, projects the identity of the Sargent-of-arms on him.

The policeman is really only there to commit “The King” impersonator to be taken care of, given the time of the year it's also quite possible he is doing so as an act of charity to get him out of the cold. (Police will often “hold” homeless persons in jail for 24 hours on the coldest nights in winter. We can assume that the jail is either out of beds, or the Impersonator actually has some mental health issues)

Macduff/The Badass Nurse

The Doctor Projects The Badass Nurse as Macduff, as he is the co-worker that he fears the most. The Badass Nurse, is most likely a man with military experience, and a combat veteran of several engagements, possibly a retired officer, or combat medic based on his reaction to The Doctor's aggression, and his instant, organized response to the problem. It is implied at the end that The Badass Nurse subdues the Doctor, and that the scene of Macduff carrying Macbeth's head on a pike is in fact a hallucination that The Doctor, is experiencing after being subdued.

King Duncan/“The King” impersonator

The Doctor projects “the King” impersonator, a homeless bum, as King Duncan. The projection should be cast as a twin, or passable body double for both the real world, and mindscape versions, as in act I, scene IV both are needed on stage, differentiated only by the fact that the “King Duncan” projection is wearing a crown, in addition to the Elvis costume.

Lady Macduff/Blue Scrubs and Macduff's Son/Red Scrubs #1

The Doctor Project's the two nurses that confront him after his attacking The Porter, as Lady Maduff, and Macduff's Son. Despite him trying to kill both of them, Blue Scrubs survives, whereas Redscrubs Nurse #1 does not. Blue Scrubs should be female, and Red Scrubs #1, should be male.

Young Siward/Red Scrubs#2

The Doctor projects his last “kill” as Young Siward, who as prophesied by the Weird Sisters, was unable to kill Macbeth. His real world counterpart is a thin nurse who due to his size get's into The Doctor's office first, but separated from The Badass Nurse, is not capable of downing The Doctor on his own.

Birnam Wood/The Christmas Tree.

While not technically a character, as far as representing Birnam Wood marching against him, as an fake Christmas tree being used to batter down his barricaded door goes, thought needs to be put into the visual aspect of this implementation. Most likely, showing the Christmas tree, smashing into the office door in synch with a more traditional Battering Ram, presumably cut off a tree in Birnam wood, needs to be CLEARLY shown on set.

Servants-Projections-Scrubs

All other minor characters from the original “Macbeth” play the role of advancing the play through exposition, using the “servants” technique typically found in the beginning of a well-made play. A notable exception is The Porter, who is being treated as an enigmatic character, which will be discussed separately. As such, the other projections are relatively unimportant for the overall tone of this adaptation. Very little priority attached to their portrayal, other than they speak their own lines (as opposed to The Doctor speaking them), provide general information, and then get out of the way. The scrubs of various colors, go on stage, do their thing, and leave stage, or die on que. This production is complicated enough as it is,Don't make it harder than it needs to be here.

The Enigma

Fleance/The Porter

After “the King's” murder, The porter, delivers his monologue in traditional Shakespearean English. This violates one of the established “rules” of the play, that what happens in The Doctor's Head is entirely seperate with what happens in the Ward. The audience should NOT be told why The Porter chooses to do this, or whether or not he actually knows about the murder, and The Doctor being guilty.

The Doctor Projects The Porter as Felance, most likely as Banquo, his ego, is trying to guilt him away from killing him. However, The Doctor, fearing that his secret is out, decides out of paraniod fear, that he too, must die. The Doctor's decision to use the murderer's to get rid of Banquo, is symbolic of this act. Also, Fleance and The Porter are never to be on the set at the same time. every appearance of Fleance in the Dreaming has the same actor as The Porter, in his hospital gown. none of the other patients, should be seen directly interacting with The Porter. The Porter, of course is free to “touch” the other patients/staff in ways that make sense and provide more ambiguity. The audience should go home arguing about whether or not he existed at all.

Dialogue:

This is a critical part of this adaptation. Mainly as the Shakespearean dialogue is given in a non-realistic fashion, in some cases replacing dialogue that character unique to this adaptation would be given that has nothing to do with Shakespeare. Again, whenever a normal person is in The Doctor's office, their projection should be in there with them, or in the dreaming.. The doctor however, delivers all Shakespearean dialogue for the External Projections, while presumably ignoring what their real world counterparts are actually saying, or even doing. From time to time he might react to a scream, or a moan of pain, that should be audible from the “real” person. Several of the scenes also demand that he have an inner conversation in “the dreaming” and have his body language in “the office” reflect his stance on the inner narrative. This is a lot of work to coordinate, and pull off, as the actors involved will have to frequently do this “blind” to each other's body language.

Time:

Despite the other added elements, time passes strictly linearly, in this adaptation. However, much of the strength of this adaptation is forcing the audience to correlate three distinct sets of physical actions, on three sets, in real-time. Synching the performances of each “real” person, with their projection is a vital endeavor in this production. If you can't pull it off, don't bother using this adaption.