We started the session by reading one of the Captain's speeches from Act One, Scene Two which describes Macbeth as a hero. Within the scene, all characters (including Duncan, the king) speak of how "brave" and "noble" Macbeth is. It was also noted that Macbeth is Duncan's cousin - Shakespeare has put this at the start of the play to show to the audience that Macbeth has a claim to the throne, albeit a distant one, which would satisfy a Shakespearean audience's belief in the Divine Right of Kings. This would be something that I think we should point out to our TA as it certainly was eye-opening for me as I previously believed Macbeth had no claim to the throne. As Chipp read the speech (lines 9 to 24), he explained in simple terms what the speech actually meant, something that would have benefitted me greatly during my GCSE on Macbeth and thus is a simple and effective way of getting our TA to understand the speech. In addition to this, it would be beneficial to have the speech up on a powerpoint presentation, perhaps having key quotes in bold as well as having the facilitator explain the speech in modern-day English.
Whilst the speech is being translated, we wanted to have a physical version of the scene the Captain is describing as our TA is more likely to remember the story of "brave Macbeth" if they see a physicalised version of it. Two groups came up with a different physical movement to portray the scene whilst my group translated the speech into simple modern-day English. We were then asked to link all three together and have an introductory skit into the scene. It took a while to get going, due to a lack of communication between the group, but eventually I had to take charge and tell the physical movers what images we should make and relate them to the plot points that my group had made when translating the speech - battle in a deadlock; Macdonald being a traitor; Macdonald having all the luck; Macbeth cutting through enemy lines to face Macdonald; and Macbeth killing Macdonald. I assured that we had a moment for each of these sections and felt as though I had taken charge and gotten the group on the right track once again. The introductory skit was created by Chipp and relates to the students that we will have taken an exam at the beginning of the piece - these students will be our main focus point for the piece as it will be based around them coming to understand Macbeth thoroughly - we chose students because it directly relates to our TA.
The video below shows our version of making Macbeth seem like a hero using physical and somewhat abstract movements, accompanied by the translation of the speech:
After this, we worked in a similar way to show how evil Macbeth becomes in an attempt to show our TA the character arc Macbeth goes on during the play. Chipp told us to look at Act 4 Scene 3 and choose a speech from it that related to how evil Macbeth becomes. It was hard to find a single speech and thus we had to use different lines from different characters which describe what Macbeth has done to the land in his tyranny, the murder of Macduff's family, and general quotes that show how other characters describe Macbeth. Once again, I feel as though I took the lead and it should be noted that half of the group I was put in were not bothered about choosing quotes and this made it all the more difficult to choose appropriate ones.
The video below shows a physical movement in time to how evil Macbeth has become in quotes:
Clearly, this physical sequence is not as well put together as the previous one because of the lack of speech describing the action. In my opinion, I think we should choose another scene that describes Macbeth's cruel actions, especially as Act 4, Scene 3 provides little to the plot.
In order to have the facilitator be included in the sequences and to look them together, I think we should have Macbeth from the start and Macbeth from the end face each other and to name notable differences about them, either from the play context or from analysis of the scene/sequences the TA has watched. We could comment upon the things that have forced Macbeth to change, namely the Witches, Lady Macbeth, and ambition which would describe how Macbeth became a tyrant. Perhaps this should be a springboard for the whole piece.
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