I have loved the play ever since I encountered it. I have seen many versions since then – several on stage (a memorable one at Melbourne Uni, performed in the round, with costuming to make it classic leathers-n-chains punk gangs), and several on film. Now I embark on an endeavour to watch as many versions I can find… 

It’s a lot about Lady Macbeth – she is so active and yet she’s not allowed to be powerful without being punished. I’m also fascinated by the way it portrays power. And then the text around it is fascinating too: the utter misuse of history that it represents (yo, English propaganda!); the way that aspects of Lord of the Rings (the Huorns going to the Hornburg/Ents going to Isengard, and the Witch King being killed by a hobbit and a woman) are apparently speaking to Tolkien’s annoyance with the play (the forest coming to Dunsinane; no man of woman born…) – and its many appearances in popular culture.

So: here go.

1971: Polanski / Finch.

The 1971 Polanski Macbeth is my ur-text for the play. We watched it in Year 11 English, and it has coloured my view of the play irrevocably. (This was 1995 and of course I had no idea of anything about Roman Polanski at the time.) Francesca Annis is what I most remember – even more than Jon Finch – because her Lady M was so fierce and then so completely undone. 

The weird sisters: 

• First appearance;
  • Maiden/mother/crone styling. 
  • Entirely physical – no sense that they are magical 
  • The maiden flashes her genitals! 
• Second appearance:
  • A cave full of naked women, all contributing to the cauldron. 
  • Macbeth drinks their concoction and then has weird hallucinations. – it’s not clear whether they have done magic or just given him really trippy drugs. 

Macbeth: 

• You really don’t get a sense that Macbeth is very impressive at the start: we don’t see him fighting, just immediately confused by witches. 
• He’s conflicted right from the start – even in front of his men. Distracted, rather than decisive.
• Malcolm and Macbeth suspicious of each other from the start.
• His haircut is doing him no favours.
• After the coronation, when he’s dealing with the murderers, is when Macbeth starts to show some determination (being bloody, bold, and resolute…).
  • His behaviour is verging on manic. 
  • Macbeth dreams of Banquo and Fleance killing him, after he sends the murderers for them. 
• By the time he’s told that the English and Malcolm are coming, he’s becoming cruel and rash. 

Lady Macbeth: 

• In the first shot, we marvel at the HAIR. And the CLEAN DRESS. 
• She is excited to see Macbeth – and he to see her: they are shown to be in love.
• She suggests murder – to Macbeth’s complete surprise.
• Uses tears to manipulate Macbeth into assassination. 
• She has a potion to hand already that will drug Duncan’s servants.
• She is already freaked out while Macbeth is doing the deed. And she never recovers the composure she had at the start. 
• Lady Macbeth falls asleep doing embroidery – first sign that she does anything so ladylike. And she has her first hallucination of bloody palms: her behaviour is very distracted. 
• Re-reading the first letter: hair in disarray, can’t read for tears.
• We do not see her fall, but hear the cry of the nurse at finding her.