Word: macbeth
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STRATFORD, Conn.--Let me confess at once that, of all plays in world literature, Macbeth is the one that enthralls me most. I do not claim it is the greatest play--or even Shakespeare's greatest play. After all, the only source is the posthumous First Folio edition, which presents difficult textual problems and is several stages removed from the dramatist's original script. On the one hand, it certainly contains some passages that were foreign interpolations; on the other, it possibly lacks one or two scenes that the Bard originally included. As it stands, it is only about half...
Despite the imperfect state in which the play has come to us, Macbeth surmounts all obstacles and has the power to grip you like no other. I don't mean just its ability to engage the mind; the play has an almost corporeal existence, and can seize you by the throat and wring...
...example of the work's appeal came in May of 1849, when on the same evening in New York City there were three simultaneous productions, starring three eminent Macbeths of the time--William Charles Macready, Thomas Hamblin, and Edwin Forrest. These performances led to what has become known as the Astor Place Riot--the worst fracas in theatrical history, besides which even the celebrated free-for-all in Paris at the premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring seems pale. At the final tally in New York, 31 persons were killed and more than 150 injured. Such is the incredible...
...third time the American Shakespeare Theatre has essayed this masterwork. In 1961 Pat Hingle was woefully miscast in the title role. Six years ago John Colicos was an impressive Macbeth, but poorly supported. For me the current go-around, staged by the AST's artistic director, Michael Kahn, proved frustrating...
...their own spooky lairs, but also as permeating regular society. Thus they are garbed as wives of members of the court, and are listed as Lady Angus, Lady Caithness, and an unspecified dowager. They often hover on the sidelines, and even take over the small role assigned to Lady Macbeth's servant. It is only in their incantatory privacy that they become obviously witchlike by donning half-masks. (Kahn of course omits the spurious interpolations involving Hecate, the patroness of witches; less commendably, he had done a little further cutting, though the production has a running-time of only...