Macbeth,
one of the masterpieces of William Shakespeare, was played at Cüneyt Gökçer
Auditorium in Çayyolu, Ankara on 6th March, 2014. Shakespeare was
considered as the most talented playwright in his own era and among many
tragedies which were written by him, Macbeth is one of the most famous ones.
The success of Shakespeare and his tragedy Macbeth are still obvious
since the theatre was full with audience who were attracted to see that famous
tragedy. Orhan Burian, who translated Othello and Hamlet as well, was the
translator of the play while Bozkurt Kuruç was the director who has directed
many important plays such as Oedipus, Sherlock Holmes, and Blood Wedding so
far. Sinan Pekinton was sharing the leading roles with İpek Çeçen: He was
representing King Macbeth while Çeçen was his wife, Lady Macbeth. The three
witches were represented by Ferahnur Barut, Füsun Akay, Yaprak Selin Onat.
Other important characters were: Duncan represented by Mehmet Gökçer; Banquo
represented by İsmet Numanoğlu, Macduff represented by Tolga Tekin and Malcolm
represented by İrfan Kılınç. The splendid acting of the actors and actresses
combined with the facilities of newly-built Cüneyt Gökçer Auditorium, therefore
watching the play became much more delighting. The play started with a blue
lightning effect and an intense smoke in the middle of the stage where the
witches gathered to cast a spell upon Macbeth around their cauldron. It was
quite an exciting start when the facilities of a theatre were considered. In
addition, although I was sitting in the rear row of seats in the circle, I was
able to clearly see the stage and hear the lines of the performers thanks to
the seating plan. Stage design was changed for a couple of times; however that
process happened pretty quickly so that the audience were not distracted from
the play.
The
tragedy Macbeth is basically about a king who interferes with his fate
due to being overwhelmed by his ambitions through his wife’s provocation. When
three witches predict that Macbeth will eventually become the king one day, he
decides to kill the present king Duncan by making a murdering plan with his
wife. They smear the blood of Duncan on the guards so that they could put the
blame on them. Their plan works and the crown passes to Macbeth. However, the
murders continue and Macbeth kills anyone who stands in his way, including his
ally Banquo. Finally, Macbeth starts to see ghosts and his wife becomes a
noctambulist talking about her bloody hands in her sleep and commits suicide.
Macduff gathers his allies to take revenge from Macbeth who kills his family
and claims his lands. He makes a clever plan and the soldiers hiding behind the
tree branches gradually approach to Macbeth’s castle. The “walking forest” is a
prophecy of three witches too, and Macbeth is defeated by Macduff with his head
stuck in Macduff’s sword. The mood was tense, sinister and murky due to the
murders, witches and ghosts until the last scene when Macbeth is killed by
Macduff and his doing the justice was celebrated effusively by the crowd. The
peak points of the play were the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth’s talking in
her sleep in front of the priest and Macbeth’s seeing ghosts in front of the
guests. Those scenes aroused curiosity since King and Lady Macbeth could be
suspected or caught for their murder. The main idea and the message to be
delivered in the play is that over-ambition is destructive. Power corrupts
Macbeth who is actually a good-hearted man and he destructs both himself and
his wife who initially encourages him for evil. Finally, in style, the play was
Brechtian since there was an apparent distance between the actors and their
characters. Every character was delivering their specific characteristics,
gestures or expressions, so the audience were led to think critically and
interpret those aspects. For instance, Lady Macbeth was repeatedly using some
gestures such as touching Macbeth’s shoulders or leaning her head on his chest
while she was trying to convince him to do evil. King Macbeth, on the other
hand, was trying to stay out of her and seemed to be lost in thoughts at those
moments. This indicates that Macbeth has a conscientious side and he
contradicts between choosing good or evil, however his wife is rather
manipulative and she twists Macbeth’s mind by using some uplifting expressions
as well as her body language.
The
production including the lighting, music, sound effects, costumes, make up, and
stage design was another factor which made the play successful. The costumes
were quite realistic since they were successfully reflecting the upper class of
17th century. The armours and swords which are used in duel scenes
made the play realistic, too. The very white night dress which is put on by
Lady Macbeth when she was sleepwalking was reflecting the tragedy by making her
look like a ghost. This dress was probably representing Lady Macbeth’s becoming
an insensitive and soulless woman just like a ghost. In the last scene of the
play, Macbeth’s head was stuck into Macduff’s sword. The head was a
successfully mummified version of Sinan Pekinton’s head and it indicated that
the play was arranged down to the last detail. The three witches’ ugly make-up,
fluffy and grey wigs, ragged and dirty clothes attracted
the attention of the audience as well as the ghosts’ white and scary make-up.
The blood on Macbeth and his wife’s hands made the play realistic, too. The
lightning sound for the witches’ scene and the epic music for the war and
kingship scenes were appropriate. A bright light was following the ghosts while
they were walking through the stage and this provided the audience to identify
with Macbeth since he was the only one in the crowd who saw the ghosts and got
mad. Stage design was mostly fine, however the figurant soldiers could have
been more in number since the stage was huge and they seemed inadequate in the
war scenes.
General
reaction of the audience towards the play was positive since the actors and
actresses were applauded loudly at the end of the play. I witnessed that many
people bought the booklet about the play which is sold in the theatre and they
were eager to see the play. During the break, I heard several people saying that
they were amazed by İpek Çeçen’s (Lady Macbeth) performance. I should agree
that she was the most successful performer of the play since she could featly
deliver the messages of the play through her gestures, mimics and tone of
voice. Although she was an evil character of the play, she managed to gain
sympathy of the audience due to her successful acting. The witches constructed
the most entertaining part of the play since their appearance and voice made
the audience laugh. They were squawking some absurd ballads all together and
dancing around their cauldron, so they did not allow the audience to distract
from the play. The epic last scene with Macduff holding Macbeth’s head cheered
and excited the audience, so most of the audience must have believed that the
justice had been done. The play sometimes became stable and I felt that the
audience were getting bored; however, the unexpected ghost scenes made the
audience become engrossed in the play again. I especially liked the
performances of İpek Çeçen and Sinan Pekinton since they acted without
forgetting any lines and they were able to reflect their feeling to the
audience. I was able to appreciate Macbeth’s tension and Lady Macbeth’s
ambition in the murder scenes as well as I appreciated Macduff’s pain and reason
to declare war on Macbeth. As a whole, Shakespeare’s peerless tragedy Macbeth
was staged quite successfully thanks to the director, translator, performers
and the production and I left the auditorium very pleased.
Ceren Halıcı
ELIT II
