Let every soldier hew him down a bough And bear't before him: thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host and make discovery Err in report of us.
the swords can be constructed to fan out into branches and then be able to collapse back into a functioning sword
Give me my armour.
The armor is a great costuming opportunity to build something visually stunning and responsive. wearable tech.
Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?--Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.
She can interact with a mirror and only in the mirror can you see the spot.
Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head
This where we can use that monitor "mirror" to project the apparitions.
In the middle, a boiling cauldron
Great opportunity to construct a visually stunning and interactive cauldron.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting HECATE
Low lying fog. LED light tracks on the floor mimic the lightening and thunder. Black light and photo-luminescent materials. Purples, blues, greens.
If I stand here, I saw him
a way for the actor to reveal how the force perspective worked.
The table's full.
This might be a chance to stage a forced perspective projected illusion of the ghost seated at the table
They set upon BANQUO
I'm so enamored with this idea of illuminating these daggers and swords with LEDs, and having them be stark white and then turning red when someone is murdered.
Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. Knocking within Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for't. Knocking within Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. Knocking within Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. Knocking within Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.
Another opportunity for visual story telling through projections.
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
Drone holding a dagger? Drone shaped like a dagger?
torch before him
the torches are a great opportunity to construct interesting stylized lighting devices. Maybe the torches can shape shift and become the swords as well as the branches of Birnan Forest.
This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.
This is not the only time the sense of smell is engaged in the text. Smells evoke certain feelings. Working with the sense of smell is something rarely ever explored in performance so maybe constructing a smell-o-rama type of device to excite these senses would be interesting.
Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers
This is another instance we can make use of the projection screen I mentioned earlier to illustrate the imagery of "unsexing" Lady Macbeth and making her murderous.
Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.
i imagine this projection screen DSR or DSL that is 6' h x 3' w that shows that acts like a "mirror" and shows perhaps the silhouette and the metrics of those who interact with it. so is this example when Macbeth speaks aside hes interacting with this monitor which shows him "horrid images" of himself as Thane of Glamis Thane of Cawdor and as King. This can also be used for the Apparitions later on in the play as well as the mirror presenting Banquo's lineage.
How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these So wither'd and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.
The Witches could wear wearable light up tech that could set them apart as otherworldly https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/10/05/this-tech-dress-will-make-you-a-paper-doll-wearablewednesday/
Doubtful it stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald-- Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him--from the western isles Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak: For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name-- Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour's minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave; Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
A lot of the expositions and the imagery of the dialog can be animated and projected. Telling the story through illustration. Like a whiteboard animation. ex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vZ0iqUS6sg
Enter three Witches
all scenes involving the Witches could be confined to the house/orchestra area. We can create their own world separate from the rest of the play. Having them on the floor promotes interaction with the audience.
I come, Graymalkin! Second Witch Paddock calls.
The witches' spirits could be drones or some type of robot
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches
Witches could enter from the house, down the aisles through the audience toward the stage. LED strips could line the walk way to illuminate their path and maybe create the lightning effect.