| ▲ | Macbeth and His Problems(porticoquarterly.com) |
| 42 points by apophatic 6 hours ago | 17 comments |
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| ▲ | farialima 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Thank you for this article. What a refreshment from so many articles about AI… What’s important and complex in Shakespeare plays, is not what it’s written, but what’s left to the interpretation of the director, or even of the public — the ambiguities, the imperfections, that let us imagine the motivations of the characters (as the article points - the motives are clear but not the motivations), and let us perceive their emotions, feel their reactions, mixed with ours. Exactly what generative AI doesn't let you do. |
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| ▲ | Syzygies 40 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| One of the high points of my acting career (such as it was, second only to doing a scene with Russell Crowe as math consultant to A Beautiful Mind) was MacBeth. While Avatar actor Stephen Lang was still in college, he played MacBeth. I brought him news that Birnam Wood had moved, and he drew inspiration from every fiber of my being to deliver his "tale told by an idiot" spiel. I can still feel the spit hitting my face! |
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| ▲ | shakna 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Performances at my local theatre are banned. The crowd loved the short five-night run, last time. It made all the papers, tickets sold out, tourists rocked up for it. Seven actors were injured, in a space that usually saw one injury a year. Six were ruled unavoidable by the fire warden doing the post-assessments. |
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| ▲ | getoj 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Apropos of the curse, an explanation that I heard from a reasonably famous Scottish stage actor: Macbeth is Shakespeare’s most popular play, cause it’s got sex and blood and poetry all over, a really tight plot, and it’s not too long. It is pretty well guaranteed to fill a theatre. Also, every actor knows the script so you can find a cast in no time. So if your current play is not selling a lot of tickets and is about to be cancelled, the theatre is going to put on Macbeth right after you to try to make its money back quickly. That’s why thespians hate to hear the name ‘Macbeth’ — because if there’s talk of that play going about, you could be out of a job next week. | |
| ▲ | chasil 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Did they avoid peacock feathers onstage? Reciting lines from The Two Gentlemen of Verona and A Midsummer Night's Dream is also rumored to be helpful (from the last section). "For the more athletically inclined, one should exit the theatre, spin around in a circle three times, and spit." https://broadwaydirect.com/13-theater-superstitions-hallowee... | | |
| ▲ | shakna 40 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Nope. They don't really follow most superstitions. But most didn't end up with half a cast injured. |
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| ▲ | talon8635 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Banned why? I understand why you wouldn’t want to reveal your location, but I’d be interested to know where such a policy was enacted. Or this is a joke on the “curse”? | | |
| ▲ | shakna 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Banned, not a joke. Because there is a marked number of incidents around the play. It doesn't matter if it is rational or not - it happens. So, banned. | |
| ▲ | gryfft 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Not a joke, I think. Thespians are a superstitious bunch and the Scottish play at this point is virtually a self-fulfilling prophecy of disastrous productions. | | |
| ▲ | moron4hire 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | As someone with the last name "McBeth," I very quickly got any interest in theater verbally beaten out of me by this particular religion. There's always that one person in the production who takes it way too seriously, legitimately thinks it's real, and will make sure you know how terrible of a person you are for even showing up with such a name. |
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| ▲ | zero_shift 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This unearths some thoughts, back from my English degree twenty years ago But basically I don't think those problems are all meant to be solved Yes, the supernatural events described on stage are very difficult to pull off even with modern effects. But they were impossible with Jacobean setups. And that's kind of the point There is always a tension between what is seen and spoken in that play. We're meant to get the sense that Macbeth is partly talking himself into his frenzy Supernatural events happen but they kind of have a bathetic, eye-rolling quality to them, like the prophecy that "Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him" Which YEAH, it does, in that Macbeth's enemies construct a bunch of battering rams from the forest timber. You are supposed to groan at that. Magic is way weaker than any of the human beings and their ordinary vices |
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| ▲ | eszed 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | > the supernatural events described on stage are very difficult to pull off even with modern effects. But they were impossible with Jacobean setups Speaking generally, as a former theatre professional, using onstage "effects" is less effective than firing the audience's imagination, and inviting them to do the work - which, of course, Jacobean artists were well able to do, and their audiences arguably more prepared to accept. The best plays - and I do think Maccers is among them, although the three productions of it I've been in were mediocre to dire - give huge scope for that. This was a wonderful article, that nails what's wonderful - and frustrating - about the show. |
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| ▲ | blipvert 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| TL;DR - he has 99 problems, but a witch ain’t one. I’ll see myself out. |
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| ▲ | angry_octet 37 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I think Shakespeare would love TL;DR, but I think the pause in 'tee -- ell -- dee arr' will go in favour of vowels, leaving 'tillder' or 'tellder'. | |
| ▲ | polarbearballs 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | You crazy for this one, Will, It's yer boy |
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