We have had to create a piece of theatre based on the theme of magic using the script "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare and "Witchcraze" by Bryony Lavery.Macbeth is a naturalistic tragedy about an ambitious lord called Macbeth who kills the good king Duncan to become king of Scotland. He is influenced in this by three supernatural creatures who tempt him with their prophecies.Shakespeare presents his witches as "wild and withered in their attire that they look not like inhabitants of the earth" they are horrifying. Shakespeare wants to show them as disturbing and mysterious. In our performance we create a dark scene With a weird and unorganised setting which we made up.
We have blocks and benches put in awkward positions to represent the moors and we acted like alien witches.We start of as pitch black with a soundscape we made up to represent the storm in "Macbeth". This was also to make the impression that it was scary and dark and raining. Also so that the audience didn't know where the sound was coming from. We was all put in awkward shapes as well as the blocks and the benches this was to add to the effect our soundscape ends with a scream and a red light comes on revealing us. The red light gives the effect of blood and death in the play.
"Macbeth" was written for a 17th century audience first performed in 1609, who would have believed completely in the supernatural world and the existence of witches. The audience would have believed completely in magic and evil.Magic to a Shakespearean audience would have been a horror to them because everyone was scared of witches. But we wanted to make our audience scared too.In contrast to "Macbeth" is "Witchcraze" by Bryony Lavery.
It is a non naturalistic, stylised, feminist play exploring the theme on magic and women's persecution for witchcraft in history.The theme of magic in "Witchcraze" is aimed at a 21st century audience who are scientific and sceptical. We are not superstitious about witches.The magic in "Witchcraze" is shown to be trickery and illusion and in scene 3 magic is presented as part of a fast paced and lively show.In our performance we took Jodie and put her under the table before the performance started so when we putt Amy under the table it looked like only Amy was under there.
I pretend to saw her in half, then pulled Jodie's legs and Amys arms away from the table. The trick works but is blatantly obvious. Links to "witchcraze" as it is so fake and exaggerated. We also used tricks from the sript.Our task was to produce a performance based on magic but taking on the contrasting styles of "witchcraze" and "Macbeth" I felt this contrast went very well.
We used Macbeth as a serious part of the performance and "witchcraze" as the funny part of the performance. I felt the "Macbeth" script was more challenging as it was so serious. Overall the performance was amazing and the audience loved it so much we all loved performing it.
