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“Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s best known plays. Perhaps because the basic story still strikes a chord with modern audiences; or because the structure, formed of a single plot, is unusually simple and this enables the audience to concentrate upon the central crime and inescapable punishment which follows. It is a bloodthirsty tale of ambition and the evils we will commit in order to get what we want.

Set in medieval Scotland the play is Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy (a little over half the length of Hamlet for example) and it tells the story of the Scottish Lord Macbeth and the strange events that are set in motion when he meets three witches on a deserted heath who prophesise that he will become King.

Once Macbeth has heard this prophesy he begins to transform from an able General and a brave fighter for his country into a man out for his own ends. Urged on by his wife he decides that he will kill King Duncan so that he can move closer to the crown. But the murder is not the simple road to success that the Macbeths had imagined. To conceal the crime and to maintain Macbeth’s position as King, more and more murders are committed, and both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth begin to suffer from disturbing visions, sleeplessness, and inner torment over what they have done.

The play combines supernatural elements (witches, visions and ghosts) with an all too human story of temptation, ambition and greed. Macbeth succumbs to the powers of evil and his crimes finally distort his judgement, poison his imagination and leave him absolutely isolated and alone. ” (Sam Pinnell)

  



Mr & Mrs Macbeth / Frankenstein