Musical Chairs?: The Significance of Seating

While reading tonight's scenes, I was struck by the fact that Banquo's ghost not only appeared at the banquet, but sat in Macbeth's chair. WHen you think of a Kings seat (which I believe would be at the head of the table) it appears to be a symbol of their supremacy, a throne of sorts. The fact that Banquo, who's progeny the Weird Sisters predicted would eventually upset Macbeth's power and replace him as king, takes Macbeth's seat of power, seems to be a bit of irony, or even symbolism for that matter. It is if Banquo's ghost taking Macbeth's literal seat is foreshadowing Banquo's progeny taking his figurative seat as king.

Goold's take on Banquo's Ghost

When looking around on the internet to see if there were any videos that could illustrate Act 3 Scene 4 when Banquo's ghost strolls into the dinning room, one video kept reappearing and really popped out at me.  However, I have this strange and bizarre feeling that I have scene this somewhere...

P.S. sorry that I couldn't put this video straight on the blog without making it a hyperlink ( Its really confusing) so if anyone could teach me how to do this for future reference that would be fantastic!

~Salvo

Casting Macbeth

I was thinking about Ms. Schieffelin's post on the "cast" of Nine Stories.
I decided I would cast Macbeth since that's the book we're reading right now and I watch a lot of Netflix. I did not do the entire cast of the play... not everyone is interesting enough.

Macbeth = Tom Hanks
He can do this. He's got that deep penetrating stare that I think is important and he has pulled off interesting characters in the past. Macbeth also needs to have a certain look. Tom Hanks is perfect because he can look so innocent, but, as I said before, he has a deep (murderous?) stare.

Lady Mac = Helena Bonham Carter
This woman can pull of the creepy wife who convinces her husband to commit murder. Some might say she could also be a witch, but I think she could play a mean Lady Macbeth.

Duncan = Michael Gambon
You probably know him as the second Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies. He has got the old man quality I need for the perfect Duncan. Father-figure, nice guy, and beard makes Gambon the perfect Duncan.

Witch 1 = Uma Thurman
Witch 2 = Salma Hayek
Witch 3 = Vanessa Williams
I chose these witches because they all have the capacity to look and act evil. Also, they are all very pretty which I think is a nice twist on the stereotype that witches are ugly.

I cannot think of a good Banquo. If you want, write a comment on who you would cast as Banquo and why.

Casting Nine Stories

I came across this article on Flipboard today and thought you all might find it interesting. The writers at Word and Film have imagined casting many of the main characters in Nine Stories. What do you think they get right? What do they get wrong?

Casting Nine Stories

"The Scottish Play"

Something I found interesting about Macbeth is that it is considered to be bad luck to say "Macbeth" inside a theatre so, actors instead refer to it as "The Scottish Play" or "The Bard's Play"(the setting is Scotland and "the bard" is a nickname for Shakespeare). Macbeth, himself, is referred to as "the Scottish King" or "the Scottish lord". If you do say "Macbeth" inside a theater you are supposed to do something to reverse the bad luck like quoting a Shakespeare line or spinning around three times.

Here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scottish_Play

Anonymous - Trailer

And here's a movie trailer that goes along my other post about Shakespeare not writing the plays.

Is Shakespeare Dead?

Last year in my English class my teacher showed us an article by Mark Twain, which question if Shakespeare wrote any of his own plays. Here is the URL   http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/?p=119    Twain brings many interesting points to light, such as why was there no books in Shakespeare Will and as far as anyone can prove he received only one letter in his life.  And here is a BBC article with some different theories
http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/10/did-shakespeare-really-write-his-plays-a-few-theories-examined/

-Greg