Announcer ethan hawke explores the black heart of the scottish play. Hawke you can watch polanskis macbeth, you can watch orson welles macbeth, and of course the trick is then you have to forget all that and live it. Man ethan, over there is Dunsinane Hill. History is always written by the victors. As the loser, macbeth is invented as a tyrant. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Announcer macbeth on shakespeare uncovered. Captioning made possible by friends of nci major funding for shakespeare uncovered is provided by. The National Endowment for the humanities. Exploring the human endeavor. The howard and Abby Milstein foundation. Shakespeare is an enduring treasure of western art. Bringing new audiences to his work is a key reason were funding shakespeare uncovered. Please join us in supporting your Public Television station. Announcer major funding is also provided by rosalind p. Walter; the polonsky foundation. Virginia and dana randt; the luesther t. Mertz charitable trust; and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ethan hawke, voiceover when you think of violent murders, brutal crimes, and nightmarish horrors, you might think of a big city, you might think of manhattan. Or if youre like me you might think a little bit past that to about a 400yearold play named macbeth. This is the story of one man who will kill his way to win the scottish throne. Macbeth is a play that youre not even supposed to say the name of it because even the name of it is supposed to conjure witches and the dregs of the universe. This tale of serial murder is the darkest and strangest of all shakespeares plays. The play may be 400 years old, but anybody paying attention can recognize everybody in it. They can recognize the evil in the heart of man. Ohh. Hawke its probably never drawn a more beautiful portrait of a broken, greedy heart than the bloody heart of macbeth. Maybe foolishly, its a part ive always wanted to play. I feel like if youre gonna play one of these parts you have to. Seek out some truth about it. When shakespeare wrote macbeth, he explored the darker side of the human psyche. Macbeth will become a traitor, a butcher, a serial killer and yet whats so powerful is that shakespeare hasnt written a play about a monster. Hes written a play about a man. Macbeth explores our capacity for violence and evil, and for an actor that can be scary. I never wanted to play it. When i was younger i was petrified of the play because, to be honest, i thought i might go crazy if i did it but now for some reason, im not as scared of it as i was and im not saying that im braver. Its just ii realize that there is that aspect to life and it isnt really worthwhile to pretend its not there. Playing this part would mean asking myself some tough questions so the essential thing for me would be to work out how to prepare for it. I thinkand this is something that nobody really wants to say, but the best way that i can ever prepare for a part is to surround myself with really smart people. Id seek advice and wisdom from historians, scholars, directors who have their own knowledge and experience. The other thing i would do to begin work on this is watch as many as i could find. You can watch polanskis macbeth, you can watch orson welles macbeth, and of course the trick is then you have to forget all that and live it and make it real for yourself. Welles it isnt often one gets a chance to do these plays. This is great. Ive done this one. Through my long career ive played it on both sides of the atlantic, ive done a textbook on it. I dont know what i havent done about this play except do it as well as id like to. Its a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know that you can never live up to. Its weird to see such ego and such humility at the same time. What a bizarre guy orson welles is. However you play macbeth this is the story. So foul and fair a day i have not seen. Hawke macbeth starts out as a warrior rewarded by the king for his bravery. The king hath happily received, macbeth, the news of thy success. We are sent to bring thee from our royal master thanks. Macbeth speak. Hawke, voiceover then 3 witches or weird sisters as shakespeare calls them, prophesy that he himself will be king. All hail macbeth thou shalt be king hereafter. Hawke macbeth and his wife decide to make it happen. He murders the king himself and then all other possible rivals. Ohh theres so much violent gore in the play, but its the supernatural element these witches or weird sisters that trigger macbeths dark dissent into murder. Their prophecy will fire his ambition. When shall we 3 meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain . When the hurlyburlys done when the battles lost and won. That will be ere the set of sun. Where the place . Upon the heath. There to meet with macbeth. The funny thing about the witches is its just the most genius piece of writing. The language is so evocative and strange. Macbeth will murder to satisfy his ambition but the evil inspiration comes from the witches. They tell him he will be king, so the current king must die. That fatal decision is the pivot of the drama of macbeth. First witch when shall we 3 meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain . Hawke at the globe in london, a replica of the theater shakespeare actually worked in they are running the opening scene. Where the place . Upon the heath. There to meet with macbeth. Fair is foul. All and foul is fair hover through the fog and filthy air. Most of this scene here you dont speak. So the rest of theif you do turn back. Hawke now macbeth and his close comrade banquo encounter the witches for the first time. All right. Lets see it one more time. Ok. So foul and fair a day i have not seen. Hawke the witches deliver their prophecy. The thane will bypass his rivals to become king. Macbeths reaction will drive the action of the rest of the play, but had he always desired the crown, or have the witches planted that idea . All hail macbeth hail to thee thane of glamis all hail macbeth hail to thee thane of cawdor all hail macbeth thou shalt be king hereafter heh heh heh man its like reading a horoscope, which i never do and the horoscope saying, this is going to happen to you, and however sensible you might be and however much you might not believe in horoscopes, this thing has been planted in your head and were quite susceptible to that, i think. Hawke, voiceover whats so unsettling about this play is that the one characteristic that undoes macbeth is simply ambition. Whats scary about is what lives inside each one of us, and, you know, yeah, not all of us want to be king, but, you know, theres a ton of actors out there that would lie, cheat, and kill their mother for an oscar or an olivier award, whatever it is, you know. We have these ambitions, and we want to set ourselves apart so much that were willing to forego all kindness and all the best parts of ourselves in the name of achieving the goal. As weve seen, the trigger for macbeth comes from witches. Today, everyones going to react to that differently, but id like to know what shakespeares audience made of witches. This is an age in one sense of witchcraft. Everyday lives are injected with. Hawke champion is an expert in the 17th century world. Champion for the early modern audience, witches are everywhere. They would have read about it, the would have sung about it discussed with their neighbors in the alehouses. She may not have been caught or she may have been executed, but you would know about a witch. So the magic and the witchcraft and the ghosts in shakespeare are not sort of frilly extras making it all a little bit more exotic. These are very powerful languages that the audience would have connected with almost straightaway. Hawke in shakespeares time writing about witchcraft had Major Political implications. Witches were taken seriously by almost everyone even by the king himself. In 1597, king james i had written a book on demonology correcting and reworking some passages, and he did so because he was convinced that witches could bring down the divinely ordained monarchy. So this play about killing a king was clearly a dangerous idea. The great anxiety that dominates 16th and 17th century political history is that the devil, normally through the agency of the pope and the antichrist are going to somehow topple protestant government in england. So this is, again, a very, very sensitive play. Hawke, voiceover the play questions where precisely dark forces come from. Why does macbeth commit horrific acts . Is it really because of witches, or is the darkness and evil already there in the man . Even scholars arent sure. Woman the real question that they raise of course is to what extent they plant or only see the evil thats in him. Thats the question that the play really asks about the supernatural. Does the supernatural cause anything in the play or does it simply forecast what is already going to happen. Woman this is really a play about the danger of interpretation, about the human desire to interpret to find certainty, to find meaning. Man part of the cunning of macbeth lies in the difficulty that everyone has in determining what it is that these creatures are doing and how much responsibility they have for what you see unfolding. Hawke in other words, is the driving force supernatural and external or the human character of macbeth . Well, the first question i would have is who is he in the beginning . I mean, how noble is he when it starts, you know . On one level the strongest choice would be that hes a very noble person, that then the witches come on, and he just unravels. That might be kind of but it doesnt sound true to me. Exactly what turns macbeth from a merely ambitious warrior into a conspiratorial murderer seems to be a tricky question to answer. Shakespeares wonderfully ambiguous, and its up to the actor to decide. So to make up my mind, i thought it would help to know who shakespeare based him on. Who was the real macbeth . Because there was a real macbeth. Macbeth is known to have lived in scotland in perthshire nearly a thousand years ago. No one knows for sure exactly where, but dunsinane is the most likely spot. Lets see. Well watch this thing. Ive heard that name so often, but ive never actually seen an image of it. The historian Justin Champion has gone there. Champion ethan, im in scotland, and as youll know from the play, behind me here is Dunsinane Hill, somewhere thats connected very much with macbeth. Macbeth of course was a real figure and very closely associated with this area. So if i turn and let you have a look, over there is Dunsinane Hill. Its exactly like i pictured it. Champion so im right to the top of Dunsinane Hill now, which is a pretty dramatic sort of panorama and this is the site of a fortress we know from archeological records. It wasnt a castle. They didnt have castles a thousand years ago but the top of this would have been fortified. This would have been an absolutely almost impregnable defensive point. From the top here, we can see right over to the north sea we can look that way to birnam wood so its an incredibly brilliant natural place to fortify. Hawke its the Perfect Place to see some witches. I mean, thats for sure. Even the moon out in the daytime is kind of creepy. So thats the place where macbeth probably lived but what about the actual man macbeth and the reigning king duncan that he kills in the play . Champion in shakespeares account of duncans death, macbeth is very much the tyrant, the deceitful host who murders his godly king in his sleep. In fact, we know that macbeth defeated duncan on the battlefield and its more than likely that in that particular episode duncan was the aggressor. So he was invading macbeths kingdom, and macbeth did as all good kings of their own lands would do defend his own rights and privileges. So in one sense, duncans death was just a casualty of war. So macbeth does not display the sort of deceit and traitorous treason that shakespeare delivers to us in the play. Hawke, voiceover well, the question i wonder about is how much of a historian was shakespeare . Did he just kind of know a few names and make this stuff up or did he study it and deliberately do it . Is this what he kind of thought happened . Did somebody tell him a story about how macbeth was actually a bad guy and so he just ran with it, or that id be curious to know. Its true shakespeare had a reputation for adapting and embroidering historical facts but here it seems the historical facts had already been adapted and embroidered. So why . I think we have to blame the historians. We need to think about how history is always written by the victors and macbeth lost. He was executed. Malcolm took over the reign of scotland, so almost straightaway as the loser macbeth is invented as a tyrant, and thats the material that shakespeare has to work with. Hawke ruling kings were determined to show their claim to the throne was better than that of any rivals and the historians were expected to help. We have historians who deliberately set out to invent tradition, but as long as they work as long as they suit the powers that be they are regarded as as credible as any other history that you might encounter. Hawke Scottish History may not reflect the real macbeth but it does show the brutal, cutthroat world that kings lived in and their queens. I also need to understand macbeths soul mate lady macbeth who is as notorious as her husband. She is his partner in crime, so how actor might play macbeth will depend a lot on who he thinks she is and on the influence she wields. Lady macbeth they met me in the day of success. Hawke she first enters, reading a letter from macbeth, where he cant contain his excitement about the witches prophecy. Lady macbeth when i burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air. Hawke the question is is he likely to act on it alone, or will his wife push him over the line to dire actions in the hope of glory . Then shalt be what thou art promised. Hawke, voiceover the nature of Lady Macbeths role in their crimes has sparked a fierce debate. So this is the evil vampire judith anderson. It would be cool to do it as vampires. She was apparently described as a vampire. Hawke, voiceover im meeting with a performance historian to talk about the variety of different Lady Macbeths. We have ellen terry here in a famous preraphaelite painting. Some of the really successful Lady Macbeths that the public has loved have been incredibly powerful and assertive and have really bullied their husbands into action. So one of the most popular in the 19th century Charlotte Cushman was a woman who was famous for towering over her macbeths. In fact, i do have a picture of that. Shes quite powerful and you can imagine her playing this role she tells you to go kill somebody, youre gonna go kill them. Youre gonna do it. Or shes gonna kill you. Edwin booth, who played macbeth to her apparently complained that he felt like saying, why dont you just kill him yourself . Youre a great deal bigger than i am. But she was a colorful woman. She lived openly as a lesbian which was not entirely typical at that time and she played the role tough. People were scared of her but people were also impressed by her because she knew what she wanted, she knew how to get there she knew how to get her husband there. Hawke apparently an alternative approach was Sarah Bernhardts. She played up the inherent sexuality in the play. Pollard Sarah Bernhardt was seen very much as a sex symbol, and she really played that in lady macbeth to the hilt to the point where some people found it distasteful. They thought, no. This womans evil. Dont make her so appealing. Dont make us feel so allured by her. And theirs was a very kind of lusty relationship. Mmhmm. Which i think is in the text. I think that works really well. Ironically, its one of the happiest marriages that we see. That we see. I know. In a shakespeare play. I know. Its the only really happily married couple we get. We get people falling in love and breaking up a lot but rarely a portrait of a steady couple. Hawke, voiceover but whether you play her bullying or seductive, this idea of a manipulative woman pushing her man to excess has become iconic. You might remember in 1990s there was an article written about Hillary Clinton titled the lady macbeth of little rock. And theres been a long tradition people saw her as lady macbeth a lot, as always manipulating him and bullying him. People want to be able to use her to explain away what they see as the failings or the drive or the mistakes made by a powerful man. Theres a way that she can become an excuse for a man that you want to forgive, i think. Men particularly like the idea of i wouldnt have done anything wrong if it wasnt for that eve. Absolutely. Its been done. Hawke, voiceover as weve seen, however lady macbeth is cast the one big question that has to be answered is does she make him a killer . Who wields the power in this relationship . Absolutely. How now what news . He has almost suppd why have you left the chamber . Hath he askd for me . Know you not he has . Just to see that change. Hawke back at the globe in london, they are working on the scene in which this question is most central who is in control . I think youve got to come right back at him physically. Yeah. Hawke after the witches prophecy, the couple had plotted to kill the king themselves but then macbeth has a complete change of heart and rejects the plan. His wife is furious. She knows him to be an ambitious man and shes more in a way, shes more realistic about what it will take to achieve what they both want and thats really what shakespeares written here. Hes written this couple that both want the same thing at a certain point. We will proceed no further in this business he hath honourd me of late; and i have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people that would be worn now in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon. Was the hope drunk wherein you dressd yourself . Hath it slept since . And wakes it now to look so green and pale at what it did so freely . Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire . Garber lady macbeth raises the question of what a man is and is a man someone who dares to take what he is promised, who dares to challenge authority who dares to kill the king . I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none. What beast wast, then, that made you break this enterprise to me . When you durst do it then you were a man; and, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man. Paster hes really poised at that moment of possibility. He might go forward with it, he might not go forward with it, and yet its the sense that if he doesnt do it he will be shamed in the eyes of his wife forever. If we should fail . We fail. But screw your courage to the stickingplace, and well not fail. Well, it certainly feels that shes dominant that she has the power in the relationship in the beginning and that in many ways you can feel her manipulating him, but i think hes a person who wants to be manipulated. I mean, its easy to say that she talks him into it but its also hes not such a hard sell. Fired up by his wife macbeth is on the brink of doing the deed. His thoughts are racing, hes hallucinating. Hes about to give us one of the most famous speeches in the play, the dagger scene. So how would i play that . Is this a dagger that i see before me . I see thee still. I see thee still ha ha ha ah. Hawke, voiceover one of my good friends actor Richard Easton has played macbeth and is gonna help. All right. So ill read this and you teach me about it as you do. I mean, just help me with it. Impertinent. Yeah. Is this a dagger which i see before me, the handle toward my hand . Come, let me i think thats an advance. You know, is this a dagger that i see before me. The handle toward my hand . That means its being offered for you to use. Right. So its its not just a thing floating in the air. Hawke, voiceover i think that one of the things that somebody needs to do if you really are gonna play any of these roles is not only break down all the language not only need to understand how it was meant to be played, you need to really understand all the rules that shakespeare was setting up before you can break them. Of time well jump the life to come part of the challenge is always just understanding the words. What does that mean, proceeding from the heatoppressed brain . The heatoppressed brain. Because my brains so hot. Its so hot, im im sweating im feverish. Right, right, right. Its not fancy poetical. Its actually literal. Its actually his head his hot. Yeah, right. Ok. I get it. Ok. And on that blade and dudgeon gouts of blood. Is that the right gouts . Yes. Which was not so before. Hectates offer hecets. Hecets. Hecates offrings and witherd murther. Whats murther . Murder. Oh. Oh. Ok. Will you read it for me . Hawke theres always a certain magic that happens when you start to say the lines out loud that you cant anticipate. It feels like a spell. Is this a dagger that i see before me . The handle toward my hand . Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not and yet i see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight . Or art thou but a dagger of the mind a false creation, proceeding from the heatoppressed brain . I see thee yet. I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell. See, what i find amazing is whenever i first start reading these, it does seem. It seems so hard to reach. You know, when you first start studying him i dont know what marshallst means or i dont know what murther means and it cuts me off from it. But then, listening to you do it its so obvious when you know what youre playing yes. But also i have played it. I know you have. So, and when you have played it, even when youve rehearsed it, youll know that this is the beginning of act 2. You know, there are 3 more acts to go. So it can be. It hasnt. Done it. It hasnt been there yet. Hawke, voiceover up until this point in the play, macbeth is still an innocent man. Hes thought about killing, but he hasnt done it. The next time we see him hes a murderer emerging bloodyhanded from the scene of the crime. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise . I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak . When . Now . As i descended . Ay. Hark who lies in th Second Chamber . Donalbain. This is a sorry sight. Woman shock and numbness and denial are the first stages of human response after a massive trauma. Hawke gwen adshead has spent years working with people who have committed murder listening firsthand to their experiences. The fascinating thing about this is that shakespeare demonstrates this in the language. If you look at the language of macbeth, the language falls apart into these staccato halfsentences. And shakespeares really showing us through the language in exactly the way that happens in real life, cause peoples language does fall apart when theyre agitated or distressed. Go get some water and wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place . They must lie there. Go carry them, and smear the sleepy grooms with blood. Ill go no more i am afraid to think what i have done; look ont again i dare not. Hawke in his panic, macbeth has emerged clutching the incriminating murder weapons and is frozen. Lady macbeth steps in, returning them to the scene of the crime and now theyre both covered in blood. Adshead you can never go back and that, i think, for me, rings very true in terms of working therapeutically with people whove killed. Its the absolute finality of this act. Youve changed the universe and you cant ever go back to how it was before and that is so profound. Hawke the act of killing changes everything something macbeth must now face. The problem for macbeth is i always think, is that he gets caught up in this idea of whether to do it or not to do it and feels like once he does it, itll be done. But, of course, its not done. Its actually just beginning, and i think thats what hits him after the murders over. He realizes hes entered some new part of his life, that he can never return to the old one and he has no idea whats coming now. [bells tolling in time with the traffic signal] movement and dance are not what we immediately think of with shakespeare. We think about words. Here in new york, theyre rehearsing a version of macbeth that relies on dance movement, and mime. I want to see how these performers portray the huge change that macbeth has to undergo without the help of language. Yeah, amazing. Unbelievable job. I will challenge myself if i ever get to play, do the scottish play to get buck naked