Word: macbeths
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...historical Banquo was actually an accomplice in the murder of Duncan. In the play he was transmuted into a figure of unswerving loyalty and integrity, thus becoming a foil to the character of Macbeth. Here, as John Devlin plays him, he comes off rather colorless. Ernest Graves' Duncan, though gray-haired, is younger than usual--which is in keeping with Colicos' Macbeth, since the two are first cousins. John Cunningham's Malcolm is crisply spoken, but too priggish for my taste; I almost regret that he does gain the throne...
...excrescences. Everything deals with the prime matter at hand--even the drunken porter's scene has a far more important function than that of mere comic relief. The dramatist compressed some seventeen years into the space of a few months. More than any of the other tragedies, Macbeth moves unswervingly and swiftly, without unnecessary padding, from start to finish; and any cut removes something valuable. Yet Houseman has removed sizable chunks (including the incredibly fabulous cauldron recipe of the Witches), and even transplanted a portion of Act II into Act IV. Lay off, Houseman--hold, enough...
...said earlier, since there is only one source for the text, and that a corrupt one, Macbeth has provided a field day for textual emendators. In Macbeth's famous remark, "My way of life/Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf," Houseman has adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation of "May" for "way." In the same speech, the Folio offers, "This push/Will cheere me ever, or dis-eate me now." Among the conjectures are "disease," "disseize," "defeat," and "dis-ease." I myself like to understand "chair" (which was pronounced "cheer" then), with which "disseat" makes perfect sense. Houseman too settles...
...most startling reading in the production follows the report that Lady Macbeth is dead. In the text Macbeth proceeds: "She should have died hereafter:/There would have been a time for such a word./Tomorrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow," etc. But Houseman has Colicos say, "There would have been a time for such a word tomorrow," [long pause]... and tomorrow," etc. This surprising enjambement is at the very opposite extreme from what Jason Robards did in the 1959 production here, when he exited and returned with the dead Lady Macbeth in his arms before proceeding with his speech...
...unsmooth silver, parts of which can swing in; and, hovering overhead, a structure suggestive of some enormous gray mythic bat, through whose wings lights sometimes filter. Ter-Arutunian also designed the costumes, which belong to no one period. For the most part they are of gray and black, though Macbeth and his wife are symbolically garbed in blood-red on their first entrance as king and queen. There is rather too much of John Duffy's dissonant and ominous background music, for which Houseman's Hollywood career is again perhaps responsible...