William Shakespeare – Macbeth (1606)
Play – 200 pages – my copy (hardback; 1993) still kept from the Worm’s school days.
- 4 nods
4 nods? Why not the full 5! This is William Shakespeare, after all. For many years the Worm has resisted the need to relentlessly handclap Bill’s many successes. Yet the countless adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays – on stage, on television, on film, etc, etc, etc – clearly show how his work remains relevant. There are reboots and there are teen comedy translations; the reason why? Because these stories clearly delight.
Macbeth – otherwise called The Tragedy of Macbeth, or more commonly known with actors as ‘The Scottish Play’ – is an oddity in Shakespeare’s canon for being rather short. It is a play bristling with action, charting Macbeth’s dirty ambition to become ruler of Scotland. Nothing stands in his way, not mere men, not mere friends, nor even mere kings!
Of course, everyone knows the plot and its outcome. After butchering all who stand in his way, Macbeth himself is slain. It is a tragedy, with questions arising on free will and predestination. It is to the witches in which Macbeth’s ambition is born, turning a humble servant of King Duncan into his murderer.
The majority of characters remain simple vessels for the movement of story – such as the ill fated Duncan himself. But if the cast of Macbeth fail to scale the heights of Hamlet et al, the Macbeths themselves are enough to sustain the reader and audience member. Macbeth becomes rampant, whilst his wife – she who requested to become un-sexed – ends deluded: ‘Here’s the small of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!’
The play ends and justice is restored. Yet perhaps the Stuart audience of the day misread the natural balance; two of King James’ successors would be disposed! Macbeth remains popular with the action fans of the theatre – and long may the handclapping continue.
