It is no secret that Macbeth is my favorite play by Williams Shakespeare. I will see every live production I can. I have many of the filmed versions on DVD (but not all, especially if you include all the pastiches and “based loosely on…” films). I have comic book and graphic novel adaptations, and more novels and non-fiction books about both the real King Macbeth and Shakespeare’s version than I have ever managed to read.
But if I’m being honest … I have no idea when my obsession with this Shakespeare work started.
Most of my lifelong pop culture obsessions I can trace back to my father. His love of classic black and white horror films and Abbott and Costello led to my love of all things connected to Dracula. His love of musicals (Broadway and film) and classic Disney (animated and live action) led to my love of all things Arthurian (thanks to the Broadway cast album and movie versions of Camelot and the Disney animated classic The Sword in the Stone). My wildly diverse musical taste (Barbershop Quartet to hard rock)? My love of slapstick comedy and fast-talking comedy duos? My continuing to root for the Mets and the Giants despite rarely watching sports on television anymore? All Dad’s fault.
But Macbeth? Not sure I can toss the credit/blame his way on this one. He was not a fan of Shakespeare (except when there was a musical connection, as in Kiss Me, Kate). Yes, he and his brothers were first-generation Americans of Scots descent (both of my paternal grandparents came from Scotland as adults). But he never seemed to care about his Scots heritage (possibly because of bad blood between him and my grandfather, who passed when I was young), so I doubt Macbeth would have come up in that context.
I can’t even remember when I first encountered the play. I know it was before we studied it in high school. It may have been in the 1937 leatherbound edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare published by Walter J. Black, given to me in middle school by my Aunt Frances (who was not from the Scots side of the family), but did middle school me really randomly flip through the book and chance upon Macbeth some 1,100 pages in? I guess it’s possible. Or maybe it was a random Saturday or Sunday viewing of Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, his adaptation of Macbeth, on one of the local NYC television stations that filled weekend airwave hours with badly-dubbed Japanese martial arts and monster movies (another fave of my father’s, leading to my lifelong Kaiju affection) and occasionally threw in more high-brow dubbed fare.
The first live production I remember seeing was a touring company of British actors that came to Mahopac High School my senior year (or maybe it was junior). What I remember most about that production was that men played the Three Witches, something I’d previously only seen done in the comedy of Monty Python, Flip Wilson, the Carol Burnett Show, etc... In hindsight, it seems there wasn’t much memorable about the performance other than that it was the first time I saw Macbeth live. It certainly wasn’t the last.
Okay, so don’t remember my first encounter with the play, and only vaguely remember the first live production I saw. But the title of this post is “Why Macbeth?” As in, why is it my favorite?
Young me was definitely obsessed with the supernatural elements: the Witches, the visions, the ghost of Banquo! And probably a bit with the bloodshed as well. But definitely the supernatural elements. Middle school was also when I was becoming obsessed with Dracula and read Bram Stoker’s novel for the first time, and when my love of all things Arthurian was also ramping up (most of my classmates didn’t really like reading “Gawain and the Green Knight,” but man did I love it, because supernatural doings!) The more supernatural, the better!
But while those scenes remain favorites and are looked forward to every time I see the show, I’ve also come to appreciate Shakespeare’s depth of character in all the leads (Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, and Macduff), and how they respond to prophecy and to plain fact. Even though The Bard was writing several hundred years before the British historian Lord Acton penned his famous phrase about power, I do think that Shakespeare was delving into the concept that “power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Macbeth starts the play as a loyal Thane, confused by why the Witches would address him with titles beyond his scope. It takes him a while to come around to the idea of murdering Duncan; he vacillates mightily before agreeing to do the deed. But it’s all downhill from there. Even having murdered his predecessor, he could still have been a good King, lived a repentant life – but once he has the power, he becomes paranoid and controlling, obsessed with the idea of a legacy the Witches promised to someone else. Corrupt. While at the same time, his wife descends into mental illness, depression, and suicide. Lady Macbeth’s move from enabler and co-conspirator to guilt-wracked sleepwalker is as moving as her husband’s shift from loyal Thane to genocidal despot. And in my mind, there is no doubt that they love each other deeply, from start to finish. I am NOT a fan of Shakespeare’s romances (Romeo & Juliet: ugh) but I think he manages to make it clear Macbeth and his Lady do love each other, which enables us to wonder: in different circumstances, what kind of power couple could they have been?
In his fantastic one-man show All the Devils Are Here, the actor Patrick Page traces Shakespeare’s development of the concept of the villain. Macbeth is of course included in the show. In a talk-back with the audience after the performance I saw in December 2023, Page said something that made me view Macbeth in yet another light. Responding to a question about how he finds his way into playing so many villainous roles, Page said that his first question is always “what does this person ultimately want?” And, he said, for Macbeth that is to overcome his fears. He’s afraid of the Three Witches, so he meets them head-on. He’s afraid of killing Duncan, so he does it. He’s afraid of losing the power he’s gained, so he has more people killed to protect it. He’s afraid of death, so when confronted with Macduff, not “of woman born,” but “ripped untimely from his mother’s womb,” Macbeth cries “Lay on, Macduff, and damned be he who first cries ‘hold, enough.’” I had never looked at the character, or the arc of the play, from that perspective before: conquering one’s fears.
I am also intrigued by the staging and costuming choices made by each new production. I’ve seen the show performed in “authentic” Scots dress of the period Macbeth takes place in (roughly 1040, when the real Macbeth reigned), in the dress of Shakespeare’s time, in Russian military uniforms of the Cold War, in modern dress, and more. Each choice brings distinct aspects of the script, and its relationship to our current day obsessions with power, wealth, destiny, and legacy, to light.
So. Why do I love Macbeth so much? There’s no one reason. I love the supernatural aspects, I love the commentary on power and motivation and guilt and paranoia, I love the power of the soliloquies. I also love that Shakespeare gave us what might have been the first written “alternate history” (because he knew darn well that his history of Duncan, Macbeth, and company was nowhere near the real history) with speculative fiction aspects – which might need to be the subject of a future Macbeth Monday post.
Do you also love Macbeth? Why or why not? And if not – what is your favorite Shakespeare play?
It is no secret that my favorite Shakespeare play is Macbeth. I’ve lost count of how many live productions of it I’ve seen, plus movie and TV versions I own in various formats, not to mention all the novels, graphic novels, and non-fiction books. Macbeth Monday is intended to be an occasional feature on the blog where I discuss whatever version or aspect of the story catches my attention at a particular moment.
There’s currently only one previous Macbeth Monday post, about Drunk Shakespeare NYC’s production. But I also posted my thoughts on Patrick Page’s All the Devils Are Here in a recent Theater Thursday post.
