Macbeth

Monday evening, New York Classical Theater debuted Macbeth at Battery Park. All the men wore kilts...as they should ;) As this is my second favorite Shakespearean tragedy, next to Othello, I was really excited to see and draw it, with my compatriots in Shakespeare and art: Julia Sverchuk and Margaret Hurst.

With their signature "panaromic theater" style of performance, we, the audience, followed the actors from scene to scene around the newly-designed gardens of the Park, and historic Castle Clinton.

I eagerly awaited my favorite lines from the play to be uttered by the Weird Sisters (the three fabulous cackly witches--played so well by the actresses--guiding Macbeth towards his ultimate demise). Below you will find drawings I made from that wonderful evening, including various excerpts from the play.

Macbeth will be performed by the New York Classical Theater group at the Battery every night except Thursdays, and then will move on to Brooklyn Bridge Park at the end of August. See link above for details and exact dates.

Lady Macbeth reading a letter
(with The Weird Sisters looking on):

Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it,
came  missives from the king, who all-
hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which 
title, before, these weird sisters saluted 
me, and referred me to the coming on 
of time, with 'Hail, king that shalt be!

Lady Macbeth with The Weird Sisters: 

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! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry 'Hold, hold!'

Macbeth and The Weird Sisters: 

How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
What is't you do?

A deed without a name.

Macbeth with Lady Macbeth: 

Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care...

Macbeth, after Duncan's murder:
To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself
Lady Macbeth:
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

Macbeth:
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!

Macbeth:
Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits...
The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
seize upon Fife;
give to the edge o' the sword his wife...

The Weird Sisters:
Round about the cauldron go; In the poison'd entrails throw, Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one,  Swelter'd venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i' the charmed pot

Double, double toil and trouble; Fires burn and cauldrons bubble! 

Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake, Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog...
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble!

Malcolm and Macduff:
Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty.

Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men
Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom...