0:00:08 > 0:00:11'When you think of violent murders,
0:00:11 > 0:00:14'brutal crimes and nightmarish horrors,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18'you might think of a big city, you might think of Manhattan.'
0:00:20 > 0:00:26Or, if you're like me, you might think a little bit past that,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29to about a 400-year-old play named Macbeth.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39This is the story of one man who will kill his way
0:00:39 > 0:00:43to win the Scottish throne.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48'Macbeth is a play that you're not even supposed to say the name of it'
0:00:48 > 0:00:51because even the name of it is supposed to conjure witches
0:00:51 > 0:00:53and the dregs of the universe.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58This tale of mass murder is among the darkest
0:00:58 > 0:01:01and strangest of all Shakespeare's plays.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04The play may be 400 years old,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08but anybody paying attention can recognise everybody in it.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10They recognise the evil in the heart of man.
0:01:10 > 0:01:17It's probably never drawn a more beautiful portrait
0:01:17 > 0:01:22of a broken, greedy heart than the bloody heart of Macbeth.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Maybe foolishly, it's a part I've always wanted to play.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34I feel like if you're going to play one of these parts,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38you have to seek out some truth about it.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57'When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth,
0:01:57 > 0:02:01'he explored the darker side of the human psyche.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06'Macbeth will become a traitor, a butcher, a serial killer
0:02:06 > 0:02:09'and yet, what's so powerful
0:02:09 > 0:02:13'is that Shakespeare hasn't written a play about a monster,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16'he has written a play about a man.
0:02:18 > 0:02:23'Macbeth explores our capacity for violence and evil.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25'For an actor, that can be scary.'
0:02:25 > 0:02:26I never wanted to play it.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30When I was younger, I was petrified of the play,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34because, to be honest, I thought I might go crazy if I did it.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40But now, for some reason, I'm not as scared of it as I was.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42I'm not saying that I'm braver,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46it's just I realise that there is that aspect to life
0:02:46 > 0:02:48and it isn't worthwhile to pretend it's not there.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56'Playing this part would mean asking myself some tough questions,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59'so the essential thing for me
0:02:59 > 0:03:02'would be to work out how to prepare for it.'
0:03:02 > 0:03:07I think, and this is something that nobody really wants to say,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10but the best way I can ever prepare for a part
0:03:10 > 0:03:13is to surround myself with really smart people.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17'I'd seek advice and wisdom from historians, scholars, directors,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20'who have their own knowledge and experience.'
0:03:20 > 0:03:23The other thing I would do, to begin work on this,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25is watch as many as I could find.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31'You can watch Polanski's Macbeth, Orson Welles's Macbeth'
0:03:31 > 0:03:33and of course the trick is then you have to forget all that
0:03:33 > 0:03:35and live it and make it real for yourself.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41- It isn't often one gets the chance to do these plays.- This is great.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43I've done this one and through my long career,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45I've played it on both sides of the Atlantic.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47I've done a textbook on it.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50I don't know what I haven't done about this play,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52except do it as well as I'd like to.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55It's a great feeling to be dealing with material
0:03:55 > 0:03:57which is better than yourself,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00that you know that you can never live up to.
0:04:00 > 0:04:06It's weird to see such ego and such humility at the same time.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08What a bizarre guy Orson Welles is!
0:04:11 > 0:04:14'However you play Macbeth, this is the story.'
0:04:14 > 0:04:16So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21'Macbeth starts out as a warrior, rewarded by the king for bravery.'
0:04:21 > 0:04:25The king hath heavily received, Macbeth, the news of thy success.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28We are sent to bring thee from our royal master thanks...
0:04:29 > 0:04:33'Then three witches, or weird sisters, as Shakespeare calls them,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37'prophesy that he himself will be king.'
0:04:37 > 0:04:42All hail Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48'Macbeth and his wife decide to make it happen.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58'He murders the king himself and then all other possible rivals.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04'There is so much violent gore in the play,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08'but it's the supernatural element, these witches or weird sisters
0:05:08 > 0:05:11'that trigger Macbeth's dark descent into murder.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14'Their prophecies will fire his ambition.'
0:05:14 > 0:05:21When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
0:05:21 > 0:05:26When the hurly-burly's done. When the battle's lost and won.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28That will be ere the set of sun.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31- Where the place?- Upon the heath.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35There to meet with Macbeth.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39The funny thing about the witches is it's just the most
0:05:39 > 0:05:42genius piece of writing.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45The language is so evocative and strange.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53The role the witches play is mysterious.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Do they cause the events that follow, or just predict them?
0:05:57 > 0:06:00'I think that's why Shakespeare has Macbeth meet them
0:06:00 > 0:06:03'in a strange no man's land.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06'But never far away from the real world.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09'This play all takes place in a kind of shadowland.'
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Right now we are in Central Park, and Central Park to me
0:06:15 > 0:06:19is a great example of kind of a border.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22A transitional place.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24It almost feels like you're in the country here,
0:06:24 > 0:06:29but just a stone's throw away is the taxis and the madness of Manhattan.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33It's kind of an invisible scrim that happens.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35You enter from one world to another.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Sometimes the park is scary, sometimes the park is inviting.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42I think these witches are trying to conjure that up.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45They're conjuring up the scrim and they're making it dark.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56Macbeth will murder to satisfy his ambition,
0:06:56 > 0:07:00but the evil inspiration comes from the witches.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03They tell him he will be king so the current king must die.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08That fatal decision is the pivot of the drama of Macbeth.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12When shall we three meet again...?
0:07:15 > 0:07:16At the Globe in London,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20a replica of the theatre Shakespeare actually worked in,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22they are running the opening scene.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26- Where the place?- Upon the heath. - There to meet with Macbeth.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31- Fair is foul.- ALL: And foul is fair.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34Hover through the fog and filthy air.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Most of this scene here you don't speak.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41So if you do turn back...
0:07:41 > 0:07:44'Now, Macbeth and his close comrade, Banquo,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47'encounter the witches for the first time.'
0:07:51 > 0:07:53So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56How far is't call'd to Forres...?
0:07:56 > 0:07:57'The witches deliver their prophecy.
0:07:57 > 0:08:02'Macbeth's reaction will drive the action for the rest of the play.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06'But had he always desired the crown?
0:08:06 > 0:08:08'Or have the witches planted that idea?'
0:08:08 > 0:08:13All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis!
0:08:13 > 0:08:17All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
0:08:17 > 0:08:23All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
0:08:25 > 0:08:30It's like reading a horoscope, which I never do.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35And the horoscope is saying this is going to happen to you.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37And however sensible you might be,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41and however much you might not believe in horoscopes,
0:08:41 > 0:08:46this thing has been planted in your head.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49And we are quite susceptible to that, I think.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56'What's so unsettling about this play is that the one characteristic
0:08:56 > 0:09:00'that undoes Macbeth is simply ambition.'
0:09:00 > 0:09:04What's scary about it is what lives inside each one of us.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Yeah, not all of us want to be king,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11but there's a ton of actors out there that would lie, cheat,
0:09:11 > 0:09:18kill their mother for an Oscar, an Olivier Award, whatever it is.
0:09:18 > 0:09:24We have these ambitions, and we want to set ourselves apart
0:09:24 > 0:09:29so much that we are willing to forego all kindness and all
0:09:29 > 0:09:33the best parts of ourselves in the name of achieving the goal.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39'As we've seen, the trigger for Macbeth comes from witches.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44'Today, everyone's going to react to that differently.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46'But I'd like to know
0:09:46 > 0:09:49what Shakespeare's audience would have made of witches.'
0:10:00 > 0:10:04This is an age, in one sense, of witchcraft.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06Everyday lives are injected
0:10:06 > 0:10:11with the spiritual war between the devil and God.
0:10:15 > 0:10:22The historian Justin Champion is an expert in the 17th-century world.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27For the early modern audience, witches are everywhere.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30They would have read about it, they would have sung about it,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33discussed it with their neighbours in the alehouses.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36She may not have been caught or she may have been executed,
0:10:36 > 0:10:38but you would know about a witch.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40So the magic and the witchcraft
0:10:40 > 0:10:43and the ghosts in Shakespeare are not sort of frilly extras
0:10:43 > 0:10:46making it all a little bit more exotic.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51These are very powerful languages that the audience would have
0:10:51 > 0:10:53connected with almost straight away.
0:10:56 > 0:10:57In Shakespeare's time,
0:10:57 > 0:11:02writing about witchcraft had major political implications.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Witches were taken seriously by almost everyone,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08even by the king himself.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13In 1597, King James I had written a book on demonology,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15correcting and reworking some passages.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19He did so because he was convinced that witches
0:11:19 > 0:11:22could bring down the divinely ordained monarchy.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29So this play about killing a king was clearly a dangerous idea.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34The great anxiety that dominates
0:11:34 > 0:11:3816th and 17th-century political history is that the devil,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42normally through the agency of the Pope and the Antichrist,
0:11:42 > 0:11:46is going to somehow topple Protestant government in England.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49So this is again a very, very sensitive play.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Shakespeare is dealing with affairs of state
0:11:53 > 0:11:56in a delicate way that, if he gets it wrong,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00he could be regarded as being seditious and treasonous himself.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10'The play questions where precisely dark forces come from.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13'Why does Macbeth commit horrific acts?
0:12:13 > 0:12:16'Is it really because of witches,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18'or is the darkness and evil already there in the man?
0:12:18 > 0:12:20'Even scholars aren't sure.'
0:12:22 > 0:12:25The real question that they raise, of course,
0:12:25 > 0:12:30is to what extent they plant or only see
0:12:30 > 0:12:33the evil that's in him.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39That's the question that the play really asks about the supernatural.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43Does the supernatural CAUSE anything in the play
0:12:43 > 0:12:47or does it simply forecast what is already going to happen?
0:12:49 > 0:12:53This is really a play about the danger of interpretation,
0:12:53 > 0:12:58about the human desire to interpret, to find certainty, to find meaning.
0:12:59 > 0:13:04Part of the cunning of Macbeth lies in the difficulty that
0:13:04 > 0:13:10everyone has in determining what it is that these creatures are doing
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and how much responsibility they have for what you see unfolding.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20In other words, is the driving force supernatural and external,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23or the human character of Macbeth?
0:13:25 > 0:13:28'The first question I would have is who is he in the beginning?'
0:13:28 > 0:13:31How noble is he when it starts?
0:13:31 > 0:13:36You know, the strongest choice would be that he's a very noble person
0:13:36 > 0:13:38but then the witches come on and he just unravels.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41That might be it, but it doesn't sound true to me.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48'Exactly what turns Macbeth from a merely ambitious warrior
0:13:48 > 0:13:50'into a conspiratorial murderer
0:13:50 > 0:13:52'seems to me a tricky question to answer.
0:13:52 > 0:13:58'Shakespeare's wonderfully ambiguous and it's up to the actor to decide.
0:13:59 > 0:14:00'So, to make up my mind,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03'I thought it would help to know who Shakespeare based him on.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08'Who was the real Macbeth? Because there was a real Macbeth.'
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Macbeth is known to have lived in Scotland
0:14:15 > 0:14:19in Perthshire nearly 1,000 years ago.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21No-one knows for sure exactly where,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25but Dunsinane is the most likely spot.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27Let's see, what's this thing?
0:14:27 > 0:14:29'I've heard that name so often
0:14:29 > 0:14:32'but I've never actually seen an image of it.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36'The historian Justin Champion has gone there.'
0:14:36 > 0:14:42Ethan, I'm in Scotland and as you'll know from the play, behind me here
0:14:42 > 0:14:46is Dunsinane Hill, somewhere that's connected very much with Macbeth.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Macbeth, of course, was a real figure
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and very closely associated with this area,
0:14:52 > 0:14:59so if I turn and let you have a look, over there is Dunsinane Hill.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09It's exactly like I pictured it.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18I'm right at the top of Dunsinane Hill now,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21which is a pretty dramatic sort of panorama
0:15:21 > 0:15:25and this is the site of a fortress.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28We know from archaeological records that it wasn't a castle.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31They didn't have a castle 1,000 years ago,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33but the top of this would have been fortified.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38This would have been an absolutely almost impregnable defensive point.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42From the top here, we can see right over to the North Sea.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44We can look that way to Birnam Wood,
0:15:44 > 0:15:49so it's an incredibly brilliant natural place to fortify.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55It's the perfect place to see some witches, that's for sure.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Even the moon out in the daytime, it's kind of creepy.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05So that's the place where Macbeth probably lived.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07But what about the actual man, Macbeth,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11and the reigning King Duncan that he kills in the play?
0:16:11 > 0:16:14In Shakespeare's account of Duncan's death,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16Macbeth is very much the tyrant.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21The deceitful host who murders his godly king in his sleep.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26In fact, we know that Macbeth defeated Duncan on the battlefield.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30It's more than likely that, in that particular episode,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32Duncan was the aggressor.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36So he was invading Macbeth's kingdom and Macbeth did as all good kings
0:16:36 > 0:16:41of their own land would do - defend his own rights and privileges.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45So in one sense, Duncan's death was just a casualty of war.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50Macbeth does not display the sort of deceit and traitorous treason
0:16:50 > 0:16:53that Shakespeare delivers to us in the play.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00The question I wonder about is how much of a historian was Shakespeare?
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Did he just kind of know a few names and make this stuff up,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06or did he study it and deliberately do it?
0:17:06 > 0:17:08Is this what he kind of thought happened,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11did somebody tell him a story about how Macbeth was actually a bad guy
0:17:11 > 0:17:15and so he just ran with it? That, I'd be curious to know.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23It's true Shakespeare had a reputation for adapting
0:17:23 > 0:17:25and embroidering historical facts,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28but here it seems the historical facts
0:17:28 > 0:17:30had already been adapted and embroidered.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32So why?
0:17:34 > 0:17:36I think we have to blame the historians.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41We need to think about how history is always written by the victors
0:17:41 > 0:17:44and Macbeth lost. He was executed.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48Malcolm took over the reign of Scotland.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Almost straight away, as the loser, Macbeth is invented as a tyrant.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56That's the material that Shakespeare has to work with.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Ruling kings were determined to show their claim to the throne
0:18:01 > 0:18:04was better than that of any rivals.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08The historians were expected to help.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13We have historians who deliberately set out to invent tradition.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Many of the accounts of Scottish history are recognisably,
0:18:16 > 0:18:21even to contemporaries, based on fictions and fake documents.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25But as long as they work, as long as they suit the powers that be,
0:18:25 > 0:18:29they are regarded as as credible as any other history that you might encounter.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37Scottish history may not reflect the real Macbeth, but it does show
0:18:37 > 0:18:43the brutal cut-throat world that kings lived in - and their queens.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48'I also need to understand Macbeth's soulmate, Lady Macbeth,
0:18:48 > 0:18:52'who is as notorious as her husband.'
0:18:52 > 0:18:56She is his partner in crime, so how an actor might play Macbeth
0:18:56 > 0:18:59will depend a lot on who he thinks she is
0:18:59 > 0:19:01and on the influence she wields.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12She first enters reading a letter from Macbeth where
0:19:12 > 0:19:16he can't contain his excitement about the witches' prophecy.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19"When I burned in desire to question them further,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23"they made themselves air..."
0:19:23 > 0:19:27The crucial question is, is he prepared to act on it alone
0:19:27 > 0:19:29or will his wife have to force him
0:19:29 > 0:19:33to do what has to be done to succeed?
0:19:39 > 0:19:43And shalt be what thou art promised.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49'The nature of Lady Macbeth's role in their crimes
0:19:49 > 0:19:53'has sparked a fierce debate.'
0:19:53 > 0:19:56So this is the evil vampire, Judith Anderson.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59They called her Judith Vampire!
0:19:59 > 0:20:03'I'm meeting with a performance historian to talk about
0:20:03 > 0:20:06'the variety of different Lady Macbeths.'
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Ellen Terry here, in a famous Pre-Raphaelite painting.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Some of the really successful Lady Macbeths
0:20:12 > 0:20:15that the public has loved have been incredibly powerful and assertive
0:20:15 > 0:20:17and have really bullied their husbands into action.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20One of the most popular in the 19th century, Charlotte Cushman,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23was a woman who was famous for towering over her Macbeths.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26In fact, I do have a picture of that.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30She's quite powerful and you can imagine her playing this role...
0:20:30 > 0:20:33She tells you to go kill somebody, you're going to kill them.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36- You're going to do it. - Or she's going to kill you!
0:20:36 > 0:20:38Edwin Booth, who played Macbeth to her,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41apparently complained that he felt like saying,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45"Why don't you just kill him yourself? You're a great deal bigger than I am!"
0:20:45 > 0:20:47But she was a colourful woman. She lived openly as a lesbian,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50which was not entirely typical at that time.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52She played the role tough. People were scared of her,
0:20:52 > 0:20:54but people were also impressed by her,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57because she knew what she wanted, she knew how to get there,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00she knew how to get her husband there.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Apparently, an alternative approach was Sarah Bernhardt's.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07She played up the inherent sexuality in the play.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12Sarah Bernhardt was seen very much as a sex symbol,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15and she really played that in Lady Macbeth to the hilt,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17to the point where some people found it distasteful.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21They thought, "No, this woman's evil, don't make her so appealing.
0:21:21 > 0:21:22"Don't make us feel so allured by her."
0:21:22 > 0:21:25And theirs was a very lusty relationship,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28which I think is in the text.
0:21:28 > 0:21:29I think that works really well.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Ironically, it's one of the happiest marriages
0:21:32 > 0:21:34that we see in a Shakespeare play.
0:21:34 > 0:21:35I know, that's so true.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38It's the only really happily married couple we get.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40We get people falling in love and breaking up a lot,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43but rarely a portrait of a steady couple.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47But whether you play her bullying or seductive,
0:21:47 > 0:21:49this idea of a manipulative woman
0:21:49 > 0:21:52pushing her man to excess has become iconic.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55You might remember in the 1990s
0:21:55 > 0:21:57there was an article written about Hillary Clinton
0:21:57 > 0:21:59titled The Lady Macbeth Of Little Rock,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02and there's been a long tradition...
0:22:02 > 0:22:04- People saw her as Lady Macbeth a lot.- Absolutely.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08As always manipulating him and bullying him.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11People want to be able to use her to explain away
0:22:11 > 0:22:14what they see as the failings or the drive
0:22:14 > 0:22:17or the mistakes made by a powerful man.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20There's a way that she can become an excuse
0:22:20 > 0:22:22for a man that you want to forgive, I think.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26Men particularly like the idea of, "I wouldn't have done anything wrong
0:22:26 > 0:22:28- "if it wasn't for that Eve." - Absolutely.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31'As we've seen, however Lady Macbeth is cast,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34'the one big question that has to be answered is
0:22:34 > 0:22:36'does she make him a killer?
0:22:36 > 0:22:41'Who wields the power in this relationship?'
0:22:41 > 0:22:42How now. What news?
0:22:42 > 0:22:45He has almost supp'd. Why have you left the chamber?
0:22:45 > 0:22:48- Hath he ask'd for me? - Know you not he has?
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Just to see that change...
0:22:50 > 0:22:52Back at the Globe in London,
0:22:52 > 0:22:56they are working on the scene in which this question is most central.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58Who is in control?
0:22:58 > 0:23:00- I think you've got to come right back at him, physically.- Yep, yep.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02After the witches' prophecy,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05the couple had plotted to kill the king themselves.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09But then Macbeth has a complete change of heart
0:23:09 > 0:23:10and rejects the plan.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12His wife is furious.
0:23:14 > 0:23:20She knows him to be an ambitious man and she's more, in a way,
0:23:20 > 0:23:27more realistic about what it will take to achieve what they both want
0:23:27 > 0:23:30and that's really what Shakespeare's written here.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32He's written this couple
0:23:32 > 0:23:34that both want the same thing at a certain point.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39We will proceed no further in this business.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41He hath honour'd me of late, and I have bought
0:23:41 > 0:23:43golden opinions from all sorts of people
0:23:43 > 0:23:45that would be worn now in their newest gloss,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47not cast aside so soon.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50Was the hope drunk wherein you dress'd yourself?
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Hath it slept since?
0:23:53 > 0:23:58And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
0:23:58 > 0:24:00at what it did so freely?
0:24:00 > 0:24:02Art thou afeard
0:24:02 > 0:24:05to be the same in thine own act and valour
0:24:05 > 0:24:08as thou art in desire?
0:24:09 > 0:24:13We see her identify strongly with his ambition
0:24:13 > 0:24:17and her fear that he might fail to realise it,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20and therefore what is she going to have to do
0:24:20 > 0:24:24in order to make him the king that he would like to become?
0:24:24 > 0:24:29Lady Macbeth raised the question of what a man is
0:24:29 > 0:24:35and is a man someone who dares to take what he is promised,
0:24:35 > 0:24:41who dares to challenge authority, who dares to kill the king?
0:24:41 > 0:24:44I dare do all that may become a man, who dares do more is none.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46What beast was't, then,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49that made you break this enterprise to me?
0:24:49 > 0:24:52When you durst do it,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55THEN you were a man.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57And, to be more than what you were,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01you would be so much more the man.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07He's really poised at that moment of possibility.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12He might go forward with it, he might not go forward with it,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15and yet it's the sense that if he doesn't do it
0:25:15 > 0:25:19he will be shamed in the eyes of his wife forever.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25- If we should fail?- We fail.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32But screw your courage to the sticking-place
0:25:32 > 0:25:34and we'll not fail.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42Well, it certainly feels that she's dominant.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45That she sets the power in the relationship in the beginning
0:25:45 > 0:25:47and that in many ways...
0:25:49 > 0:25:51..you can feel her manipulating him.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56But I think he's a person who wants to be manipulated.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59And mean, it's easy to say that she talks him into it,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01but it's also he's not such a hard sell.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10'Fired up by his wife, Macbeth is on the brink of doing the deed.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13'His thoughts are racing. He's hallucinating.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18'He's about to give us one of the most famous speeches in the play -
0:26:18 > 0:26:19'the dagger scene.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24'So how would I play that?'
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Is this a dagger that I see before me?
0:26:27 > 0:26:29I see thee still, I see thee STILL.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31HE LAUGHS
0:26:31 > 0:26:35'One of my good friends, actor Richard Easton,
0:26:35 > 0:26:37'has played Macbeth and is going to help.'
0:26:39 > 0:26:45All right, so I'll read this and you teach me about it as we do it.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47- Just help me with it.- Impertinent.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Is this a dagger which I see before me?
0:26:52 > 0:26:53The handle toward my hand?
0:26:53 > 0:26:56- Come, let me clutch thee... - I think that's an advance.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59You know, is this a dagger that I see before me?
0:26:59 > 0:27:01The handle toward my hand.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05- That means it's being offered for you to use.- Right.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08It's not just a thing floating in the air.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10'I think that one of the things that somebody needs to do
0:27:10 > 0:27:13'if you really are going to play any of these roles
0:27:13 > 0:27:16'is not only break down all the language,'
0:27:16 > 0:27:20not only need to understand how it was meant to be played,
0:27:20 > 0:27:22you need to really understand all the rules
0:27:22 > 0:27:25that Shakespeare was setting up before you can break them.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30'Part of the challenge is always just understanding the words.'
0:27:30 > 0:27:33What does that mean? "Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain."
0:27:33 > 0:27:36- Because the heat-oppressed brain... - Because my brain's so hot.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39I'm sweating, and feverish, right, right, right.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42It's not fancy poetical, it's actually...
0:27:42 > 0:27:45It's actually his head's hot. Yeah, right, OK. I get it, OK.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50"And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood." Is that right? Gouts?
0:27:50 > 0:27:54- "Which was not... Which was not so before. Hectates..."- Hecates.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58Hecate's. "Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murther." What's murther?
0:27:58 > 0:27:59- Murder.- Oh, OK.
0:28:01 > 0:28:02Will you read it for me?
0:28:02 > 0:28:05There's always a certain magic that happens
0:28:05 > 0:28:09when you start to say the lines out loud that you can't anticipate.
0:28:12 > 0:28:13It feels like a spell.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Is this a dagger which I see before me,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22the handle toward my hand?
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Come, let me clutch thee.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31Art thou not, fatal vision,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34sensible to feeling as to sight?
0:28:34 > 0:28:39Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
0:28:43 > 0:28:44I see thee yet...
0:28:46 > 0:28:50I go, and it is done -
0:28:50 > 0:28:53the bell invites me.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
0:28:56 > 0:28:59that summons thee to heaven
0:28:59 > 0:29:02or to hell.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06See, what I find amazing is whenever I first start reading these
0:29:06 > 0:29:07it does seem...
0:29:09 > 0:29:10It seems so hard to reach.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13You know, when you first start studying him -
0:29:13 > 0:29:15I don't know what martiallist means,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18or I don't know what murther means and it cuts me off from it,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21but then listening to you do it, it's so obvious.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24When you know what you're playing, it's so clear.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27- Yes, but also I have played it. - I know you have.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30So when you have played it, even when you've rehearsed it,
0:29:30 > 0:29:32you'll know that this is the beginning of act two.
0:29:34 > 0:29:39You know, there are three more acts to go, so it can be...
0:29:41 > 0:29:45He hasn't done it yet. He hasn't been there yet.
0:29:48 > 0:29:53'Up until this point in the play, Macbeth is still an innocent man.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57'He's thought about killing, but he hasn't done it.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00'The next time we see him, he's a murderer
0:30:00 > 0:30:03'emerging bloody-handed from the scene of the crime.'
0:30:07 > 0:30:08I have done the deed.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14- Didst thou not hear a noise?- I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18- Did not you speak?- When?- Now. - As I descended?- Aye.- Hark.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21- Who lies in the second chamber? - Donalbain.
0:30:23 > 0:30:24This is a sorry sight.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32'Shock and numbness and denial'
0:30:32 > 0:30:37are the first stages of human response after a massive trauma.
0:30:40 > 0:30:41Gwen Adshead has spent years
0:30:41 > 0:30:44working with people who have committed murder,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47listening first-hand to their experiences.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51The fascinating thing about this
0:30:51 > 0:30:56is that Shakespeare demonstrates this in the language.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58If you look at the language of Macbeth,
0:30:58 > 0:31:03the language falls apart into these staccato half-sentences
0:31:03 > 0:31:06and Shakespeare is really showing us through the language,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08in exactly the way that it happens in real life,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11because people's language does fall apart
0:31:11 > 0:31:13when they're agitated or distressed.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16Go get some water
0:31:16 > 0:31:18and wash this filthy witness from your hand.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
0:31:23 > 0:31:25They must lie there!
0:31:25 > 0:31:31Go, carry them, and smear the sleepy grooms with blood.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33I'll go no more.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38I am afraid to think what I have done, look on't again I dare not.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41In his panic, Macbeth has emerged
0:31:41 > 0:31:44clutching the incriminating murder weapons and is frozen.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48Lady Macbeth steps in, returning them to the scene of the crime -
0:31:48 > 0:31:51and now they're both covered in blood.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57You can never go back, and that, I think, for me,
0:31:57 > 0:32:00rings very true in terms of working therapeutically
0:32:00 > 0:32:05with people who have killed, is the absolute finality of this act,
0:32:05 > 0:32:07the fact that you've changed the universe
0:32:07 > 0:32:12and you can't ever go back to how it was before.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14And that is so profound.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25This scene is not just a watershed for the character Macbeth.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29Shakespeare was writing in the wake of a devastating political crisis
0:32:29 > 0:32:31in British history -
0:32:31 > 0:32:33the Gunpowder Plot.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38Roman Catholics had planted barrels of gunpowder
0:32:38 > 0:32:41right under the House Of Commons.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46They had planned to blow up the ministers and King James himself.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50The parallel with Macbeth was obvious
0:32:50 > 0:32:53and, for Shakespeare, risky.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Any audience watching Macbeth in the early 17th century
0:32:58 > 0:33:02would have had that in the back of their minds, absolutely,
0:33:02 > 0:33:06so the threat of rebellion, the threat of treason, sedition,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09is the great, sort of, white noise of politics at this time,
0:33:09 > 0:33:13so we need to think about an audience incredibly sensitised
0:33:13 > 0:33:17to anything to do with rebellion, treason, deceit, conspiracy,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20and that's what this play is about - it's about a canker
0:33:20 > 0:33:24right at the heart of government and the threat of murdering a king.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32And the consequences if you were caught were terrifying.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Killing kings has catastrophic consequences
0:33:37 > 0:33:39for those who are discovered trying to do so,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43so the consequences of brutal, brutal torture
0:33:43 > 0:33:46and then death, execution and dismemberment
0:33:46 > 0:33:50would have been in the audience's mind straightaway,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54so all of that blood is not only likely to have been Duncan's blood,
0:33:54 > 0:33:59but, potentially, the blood of Macbeth as well if he is discovered.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03So that fear of discovery for an audience is absolutely key, I think.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09The act of killing changes everything.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11Something Macbeth must now face.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19The problem for Macbeth, I always think,
0:34:19 > 0:34:21is that he gets caught up in this idea
0:34:21 > 0:34:23of whether to do it or not to do it
0:34:23 > 0:34:27and feels like once he does it, it'll be done.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29But of course it's not done.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31It's actually just beginning,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35and I think that's what hits him after the murder's over.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39He realises he's entered some new part of his life,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42that he can never return to the old one,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45and he has no idea what's coming now.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05Movement and dance are not what we immediately think of
0:35:05 > 0:35:06with Shakespeare.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09We think about words, but here in New York,
0:35:09 > 0:35:12they are rehearsing a version of Macbeth
0:35:12 > 0:35:15that relies on dance, movement and mime.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25'I want to see how these performers
0:35:25 > 0:35:28'portray the huge change that Macbeth has to undergo
0:35:28 > 0:35:30'without the help of language.'
0:35:46 > 0:35:50Yeah, amazing. Unbelievable job.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53I will challenge myself, if I ever get to play...
0:35:53 > 0:35:57- Do the Scottish play, to get buck naked... - THEY LAUGH
0:35:57 > 0:36:00..because I think that there's something so scary and...
0:36:00 > 0:36:04I mean, if you're really trying to clean yourself, it's really great.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07You know, that was the most moving thing
0:36:07 > 0:36:10I found about watching you guys play it out,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14was there's certain things that you can express non-verbally
0:36:14 > 0:36:18that get lost when you put too much language in it.
0:36:18 > 0:36:20It would be an amazing thing
0:36:20 > 0:36:23if you were actually going to act Shakespeare's text,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27- to make yourself do what you guys are doing.- Take the words away.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31Yeah, take the words away, because you'd find moments.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38You guys have these moments that are more powerful
0:36:38 > 0:36:42than I've ever seen the play acted out in words,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45because you're forced to look and be with each other.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49It's more innate, I think.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53I think physicality is something that people can all relate to.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59I think there's something that can be taken
0:36:59 > 0:37:02from watching this interpretation.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07Macbeth had done the deed, but he and his wife were in this together.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19I think love is the focal point of this choice that they've made.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22Without it, they would never be able to go down this path so far.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24He does it for her, in a way,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28but not because he's manipulated by her,
0:37:28 > 0:37:30but because he wants to make her happy
0:37:30 > 0:37:32and she wants something great for him.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37The Macbeths do something together
0:37:37 > 0:37:40that it seems neither of them would ever do alone.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45Shakespeare's tapped into something that psychologists recognise.
0:37:48 > 0:37:53I think homicide often does involve creating a type of fantasy world
0:37:53 > 0:37:57and it may be easier to do that sometimes with another person.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02The process of justifying to yourself becomes crucial,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05and that's where the other person comes in.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10I think a key phrase that people can sometimes use on each other,
0:38:10 > 0:38:12"This is the courageous thing to do,"
0:38:12 > 0:38:15and, in fact, Lady Macbeth says this, you know.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19"Nail your courage to the sticking-point and we will not fail."
0:38:24 > 0:38:27The couple had been united in their joint plot,
0:38:27 > 0:38:29but now, after the murder,
0:38:29 > 0:38:32they start to respond differently to what they've done.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38Even though Macbeth has become king, he doesn't feel secure.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Without confiding in his wife,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45he orders the murder of his friend, but potential rival, Banquo.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51In a show of normality, Macbeth hosts a royal banquet
0:38:51 > 0:38:55and pretends to expect the murdered man to appear.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57Both sides are even.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01But Banquo's place at the table is filled...
0:39:02 > 0:39:04..by his ghost.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06What is't that moves your highness?
0:39:09 > 0:39:11Which of you have done this?
0:39:11 > 0:39:13What, my good lord?
0:39:13 > 0:39:16- Thou canst not say I did it! - Gentlemen, rise...
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Macbeth is the only one who sees the ghost,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22so the power of the scene hinges
0:39:22 > 0:39:25on how real the actor makes his illusion.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29Anthony Sher found his own key to playing the scene.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33As part of my research for playing the part,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37I met two real-life murderers.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40And, although they were very different men,
0:39:40 > 0:39:46they both answered the same way to one of my questions, which was,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50"Do you ever dream of your victims?"
0:39:50 > 0:39:53And both, phrasing it differently, answered,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55"Only when I'm awake."
0:39:58 > 0:40:01And I thought, well, this is perfect,
0:40:01 > 0:40:04because I now know how to play Banquo's ghost.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07See there!
0:40:07 > 0:40:11Behold! Look!
0:40:11 > 0:40:12Lo!
0:40:18 > 0:40:21While Macbeth is horrified to see Banquo's ghost,
0:40:21 > 0:40:25Lady Macbeth is desperately trying to cover for him.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29What? Quite unmann'd in folly?
0:40:29 > 0:40:33She sees he's in danger of revealing a terrible secret,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37even though she knows nothing about Banquo's death.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41He's going berserk cos he's seeing Banquo's ghost and she's going,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44"What are you doing? Behave yourself, don't let it show!"
0:40:44 > 0:40:48Why do you make such faces?
0:40:48 > 0:40:52When all's done, you look but on a stool.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55She still doesn't know why he's going quite so mad.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59Because he hasn't told her what's going on.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01Avaunt! And quit my sight!
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless. Thy blood is cold.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Thou hast no speculation in those eyes!
0:41:08 > 0:41:12Think of this, good peers, but as a thing of custom for 'tis no other.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17Ultimately, all she can do is chase the horrified guests away.
0:41:17 > 0:41:18At once, good night.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26Publicly, the scene has been dangerous for the Macbeths.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29But privately, it's a very intimate moment.
0:41:29 > 0:41:34Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36At the end of the banquet, she says,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39"You lack the season of all natures, sleep."
0:41:39 > 0:41:44As though saying, "Look, darling, we've had a terrible dinner.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46"You probably just need a good sleep."
0:41:46 > 0:41:49HE LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY
0:41:50 > 0:41:52'What you need is a good night's sleep.'
0:41:52 > 0:41:55All you need is a cup of tea, you know?
0:41:55 > 0:41:59And we just, we just both spontaneously burst
0:41:59 > 0:42:04into rather hysterical, maniacal, not very comfortable giggles.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08Come, we'll to sleep.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10THEY LAUGH HYSTERICALLY
0:42:13 > 0:42:18They've had the dinner party from hell. It's been a complete disaster.
0:42:18 > 0:42:24And they just sit there laughing like a couple might who, you know,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27the only thing left to do is to laugh.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37SHE WHIMPERS
0:42:40 > 0:42:42It's a desperate moment.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45Lady Macbeth has struggled to stop her husband
0:42:45 > 0:42:47from revealing a terrible secret.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52And the experience seems to divide them.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56The couple drifts further apart.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59Macbeth goes off alone to the witches for solace,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03but this just provokes him into the frenzied killing
0:43:03 > 0:43:05of even more potential rivals.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08He's becoming a solitary tyrant.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12'The Macbeths are never seen on the stage together again.'
0:43:20 > 0:43:24The only good thing that ever happened in the play
0:43:24 > 0:43:27was Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's love for each other,
0:43:27 > 0:43:31which somehow just slowly peters out.
0:43:31 > 0:43:35It's an interesting, sad element of the play
0:43:35 > 0:43:38that there isn't the big "I hate you," scene,
0:43:38 > 0:43:43"You've betrayed me," scene, "I don't love you anymore," scene.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47They just kind of fade out and dial down
0:43:47 > 0:43:50and go to their separate corners.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53There's something kind of truthful about that to me.
0:43:53 > 0:43:59People who have a big secret, they start to not want to see each other,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03because when they see the other one, they're looking at their own shame.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11The couple are no longer connected.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14However, what we don't expect, is that, now alone,
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Lady Macbeth will completely break down.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22In one of the most famous scenes of the play,
0:44:22 > 0:44:25we see Lady Macbeth driven to sleepwalking,
0:44:25 > 0:44:29obsessively acting out her part in the original crime.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33Her terrified maid has brought a doctor
0:44:33 > 0:44:35to observe this wild behaviour.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Look, how she rubs her hands.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41Yet here's a spot.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46Out, damned spot!
0:44:46 > 0:44:48Out, I say!
0:44:48 > 0:44:50One, two.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55Why, then, 'tis time to do it.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59Hell is murky.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04The sleepwalking scene is one of the most
0:45:04 > 0:45:08horrifying scenes in literature, I think.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14It's a deeply distressing portrait of a broken woman.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19Lady Macbeth at the beginning of the play seems steely,
0:45:19 > 0:45:22calculating, cool...
0:45:23 > 0:45:25..able to handle anything.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30And in the course of the play, you watch her unravel.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35She has been the strong one, and then,
0:45:35 > 0:45:39you don't expect her to have any kind of a breakdown
0:45:39 > 0:45:42or a moment in which what she's been keeping in
0:45:42 > 0:45:45comes out again at night and with visions and so forth.
0:45:47 > 0:45:56Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59Do you mark that?
0:46:00 > 0:46:05What? Will these hands ne'er be clean?
0:46:05 > 0:46:07SHE WHIMPERS
0:46:13 > 0:46:17While Lady Macbeth is finally overwhelmed by her emotions
0:46:17 > 0:46:19and loses her mind,
0:46:19 > 0:46:21Macbeth seems to do the opposite.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26He seems to suppress all feeling and somehow just ploughs on.
0:46:28 > 0:46:34There's a very hurt but numb side in him now.
0:46:35 > 0:46:42"I'm covered in so much blood, it's not worth washing it off.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44"I just might as well carry on."
0:46:44 > 0:46:51He has no option but to continue along this murderous path,
0:46:51 > 0:46:53and it becomes, erm...
0:46:54 > 0:46:56..something he has to do.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00He has to plough his way on, having gained the throne.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04She loses her grip on him, and he becomes...
0:47:04 > 0:47:06it's almost, she's let loose this creature
0:47:06 > 0:47:11who then she looks at and thinks, "What have I let loose?
0:47:11 > 0:47:15He's more of a murderer, he's more of a maniac than she ever envisaged.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19He's gone past the point when they could enjoy their power.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22He's just not ever going to be content.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29'It's at this point,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32'when he's almost blindly hacking away at his enemies,
0:47:32 > 0:47:34'when he seems almost numb to all feeling,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38'that Shakespeare gives Macbeth a speech
0:47:38 > 0:47:41'of extraordinary beauty and utter isolation.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45'How does an actor prepare for that?
0:47:46 > 0:47:50'I'm going to see a copy of the earliest printed edition of Macbeth,
0:47:50 > 0:47:51'known as the First Folio.'
0:47:54 > 0:47:56I have never seen a First Folio,
0:47:56 > 0:47:58and I've always wanted to, and so,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01it's kind of like diving back into time.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05There's such a romanticism to the idea
0:48:05 > 0:48:09of Shakespeare staying up all night, you know,
0:48:09 > 0:48:12Romeo and Juliet pouring out of his soul,
0:48:12 > 0:48:14Macbeth pouring out of his soul,
0:48:14 > 0:48:19and you somehow want to touch that lightning.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24'What's extraordinary is that the play Macbeth
0:48:24 > 0:48:29'was not printed until 1623, seven years after its author's death.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33'If it wasn't for his fellow actors publishing it,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35'this play could have been lost forever.'
0:48:37 > 0:48:39Here we go.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45The book is in the Morgan Library in New York.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49It's over 400 years old and probably worth millions.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53But for many of us, it's priceless.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03Curator John Bidwell has retrieved it from the vault.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38Ah, my favourite speech. Let's find it.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Awfully near the end there but here we are already into Hamlet.
0:49:42 > 0:49:43God, can you imagine?
0:49:45 > 0:49:47Imagine a body of work like this?
0:49:47 > 0:49:52You turn one page, Macbeth finishes and then Hamlet begins.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59It kind of suits the end of the Scottish Play -
0:49:59 > 0:50:04there's a slight burn on the final page of Macbeth.
0:50:04 > 0:50:09Somebody was upset. This cigarette fell as Macbeth fell.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Only one page? How does that happen in the book?
0:50:14 > 0:50:15Hmm.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19'The speech I'm looking for
0:50:19 > 0:50:23'comes just after Macbeth has heard his wife is dead.
0:50:23 > 0:50:28'She's committed suicide, and yet he seems unable to respond.'
0:50:30 > 0:50:32Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
0:50:32 > 0:50:35creeps in this petty pace from day to day.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38To the last syllable of recorded time.
0:50:38 > 0:50:45And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47Out, out brief candle.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50Life's but a walking shadow,
0:50:50 > 0:50:56a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
0:50:56 > 0:50:57and then is heard no more.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03signifying nothing.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11You've heard of words to live by. Those are words to die by.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18His vision of life at that point is so nihilistic
0:51:18 > 0:51:23that even the loss of the woman whom he clearly had loved
0:51:23 > 0:51:27so much no longer means anything to him, because he can no longer feel.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29He can no longer feel.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32And I think that's... At the end of the day,
0:51:32 > 0:51:35that is Shakespeare's deepest insight
0:51:35 > 0:51:43about what it is to be able to commit murder, without remorse.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47And that is that you lose the capacity to feel.
0:51:55 > 0:52:01'Macbeth seems almost empty of emotion and yet, as the climax
0:52:01 > 0:52:05'of the play approaches, he will surely know fear.
0:52:07 > 0:52:08'And now he's learned
0:52:08 > 0:52:11'that the witches' promises of safety were just dangerous riddles.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18'And other forces have assembled to confront him in battle.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21'He will have to face his enemies.'
0:52:23 > 0:52:25That's where Macbeth is at that point.
0:52:25 > 0:52:30He has nothing left to live for so why not bring it all with him?
0:52:31 > 0:52:36Ring the alarm bell! Blow wind!
0:52:39 > 0:52:43It truly is a portrait of an animal trapped in a corner
0:52:43 > 0:52:46that's going to die.
0:52:46 > 0:52:52That is still fighting in an instinctive but weary way.
0:52:52 > 0:52:58It's still trying to defend itself, but it knows that it's lost.
0:52:58 > 0:53:03HE GROANS AND GASPS
0:53:06 > 0:53:12At last, Macbeth's brutal regime is over, but what really created it?
0:53:12 > 0:53:16Can we finally answer that question?
0:53:16 > 0:53:20Was it the witches that corrupted Macbeth? Or his own ambition?
0:53:24 > 0:53:28The fantastic idea of Macbeth is that there are things out there.
0:53:28 > 0:53:29There really are.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32There are monsters, disgusting and disturbing.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34But they are also in here.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42It is like the horror movie in which the character being chased
0:53:42 > 0:53:45locks the door, double locks it, triple locks it,
0:53:45 > 0:53:47retreats to the bedroom, locks that, and then discovers
0:53:47 > 0:53:53that whatever it is that he's most afraid of is already inside.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01'After travelling with Macbeth on this darkest of journeys,
0:54:01 > 0:54:03'what do we feel about it?'
0:54:05 > 0:54:10I do feel sorry for Macbeth, although sorry is too minor a feeling.
0:54:10 > 0:54:16I feel empathy for him, deep distress for him.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21I don't want him not to be captured, but there is a sense in which
0:54:21 > 0:54:23he still has a claim upon my human feelings.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28It is a tragedy because there were so many points
0:54:28 > 0:54:32at which he might have pulled back. And he doesn't.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36And he ends up destroying the things that were most valuable.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47Shakespeare's great gift as a writer
0:54:47 > 0:54:51is that he never holds people at arm's length.
0:54:51 > 0:54:56He never says look at this person, isn't he disgraceful,
0:54:56 > 0:54:58or isn't he ridiculous?
0:54:58 > 0:55:06Shakespeare always says it's me, it's you, it's us. He always does that.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08It is his great gift.
0:55:10 > 0:55:15This powerful sense of our shared humanity is in the text of the play.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18'And it would just have to be the core
0:55:18 > 0:55:20'of what I would draw on to play the part.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25'To my mind, the greatest challenge in playing Macbeth
0:55:25 > 0:55:28'is not that dissimilar to a movie like Raging Bull.'
0:55:28 > 0:55:34What he's doing is so horrible, but why should the audience care?
0:55:34 > 0:55:36You can't do that by trying to be likeable, or something.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39You have to do it by being a human being.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41While you may not forgive them, or anything,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44you would at least have empathy for their humanity and the crisis
0:55:44 > 0:55:48they have gotten themselves into, and relate to it on some level.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52And that, that's the big magic trick, I think.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11'It's at the end of the play, when all the horrors are done,
0:56:11 > 0:56:13'that Shakespeare turns to offer
0:56:13 > 0:56:17'some compassionate words for the survivors.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20'And they can still be a comfort to us today.'
0:56:24 > 0:56:29They were our neighbours, our friends, our husbands, wives,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31brothers, sisters, children and parents.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35'The mayor of New York, at the 10th anniversary
0:56:35 > 0:56:39'of the World Trade Center bombing, what's he going to say?'
0:56:39 > 0:56:44How do words do it? What does he turn to? He's a smart guy.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46He turns to Shakespeare.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53At the end of Macbeth, Shakespeare says, try not to grieve with
0:56:53 > 0:56:59the same intensity that you loved, for then it would be unbearable.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02Let us recall the words of Shakespeare.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06"Let us not measure our sorrow by their worth.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08"For then it will have no end."
0:57:13 > 0:57:17When they lose a loved one, when words fail,
0:57:17 > 0:57:22Shakespeare provides us with the insight that we need
0:57:22 > 0:57:26to understand so many parts of our lives.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32Somebody said once, current events stay exactly the same.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37'There's always wars and there's always people desperate.'
0:57:37 > 0:57:41If you really want to change any of all that, then you need
0:57:41 > 0:57:44to change it in your heart, and that's where poetry comes.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48That's where Shakespeare's most valuable.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd