I mentioned the other day that I was watching season 2 of Slings & Arrows. Well, I stopped. Not because it’s bad. It’s a marvelous Canadian show about theatre – basically, a send-up of life at the Stratford Festival.
No, the problem is I know these people too well. Not the actors, only a couple of whom I’ve met. No, it’s the characters. These are the people I work with, day in, day out. Theatre people, the good and the truly painful. And, for some reason, I’m having trouble watching something so close to theatre life on the screen.
Or maybe it’s that season 2 revolves around Macbeth, and there are things in their production of it that are driving me crazy. Little things as well as major themes. Like when they’re staging the banquet scene, the actor playing Mac delivers a line to a thane – "This is more strange than such a murder is!" Okay, he’s freaking out after seeing the ghost, fine. Only that line has to be delivered to Lady M. Why? Because her next line is, "My worthy lord, your noble friends do lack you." It means he’s not paying attention to his guests, he’s being unaware of them – but they’re not unaware of him. It’s what brings him back to his senses, and he addresses them like a nearly sane man. The choice made in the rehearsal scene is bad theatre – but the kind of thing that happens all the time in the business, because actors and directors have ideas outside of the text. Fine, do what you want with it – but then, cut the line that belies what you’re doing! Be consistant! Think about what comes before and after!
That’s an example of the little thing. A big one is the discussion of Evil. They keep discussing the fact that Macbeth, the man, is evil. Eeeeevil. Evil from the top of the show, from his first line. They justify this by saying that he is far too easily swayed by the witches telling him he will be king someday.
Too easily swayed? Have they read the next three scenes? The witches put the idea in his head, and he’s fighting it as fiercely as he ever fought on the battlefield – but he just can’t rid himself of the image. If he’s evil, why does he need his wife to encourage him? If he’s evil, why does he talk himself out of it?
Most importantly, if he’s evil, where is the journey? It’s far, far more potent to have him be a good man, a valiant soldier, and worthy general at the start of the show. Then, driven by ambition, he commits murder – he kills Duncan, the king. Then, all at once, he sees murder as the answer to his problems. He shows this right away by killing the king’s guards, who were drugged and so unable to testify against him. Yet he sees their deaths as the only way of staying safe. Then it’s his best friend and godson. Then it’s women and children. Then it’s anyone who even talks of fear. The show is about his journey to becoming a blood-soaked madman, completely deprived of sleep, shaken at night by the deeds he has done, hoping to stop them haunting him by killing anyone who is a threat.
(Actually, thinking about it, this would’ve been a far more interesting journey for Anakin Skywalker. Because it’s close. I laughed at the notion that he becomes Darth Vader because he has… bad dreams! But if he’s driven mad by the blood on his hands, well, the only way to hide the spot is to kill a whole lot of people!)
Anyway, I think the Slings & Arrows writers were trying to inform the audience about the basics of Mackers, which is understandable. But still, there is no value in making Mac evil, or Evil. If he’s bad to the bone from the time the play starts, there is no Tragedy in his demise. And we have to remember, this is the Tragedy of Macbeth, not of Scotland. It’s him we’re supposed to be caring about – and to do that, we have to take his journey with him.
This is the stuff that’s swirling around in my brain as I prepare to play the part. Thanks for listening.
DB
