Macbeth Creative Project (Matthew Milligan and Sofia Powers) The Scottish Puppetry
Sofia and I created a dramatic and humorous take on Macbeth, as an amateur puppet. Our puppet show simplifies and adds a comical aspect to the play Macbeth. We modernized and combined all of the extensively-worded Shakespearean text to make it understandable material for any age group. This project was designed to create a unique understanding and perspective of the play Macbeth. We used our ¨vaulting ambition¨ to create an interpretive puppet show like no other project.
In interpreting the whole material for our script, we deliberately left out some scenes to minimize distractions from the meaning and basic plot. We deleted scenes like the comic relief from porter character to really bring out the lies of the Macbeths. Our version instead goes straight from them plotting to be sad to them pretending to be sad right away. We also cut the murder of Macduff’s family because it is dramatically discussed later, and start late in scene 4.3 because Malcolm and Macduff’s droning on distracts from Macduff’s reaction to the murder of his family.
Our production consists of many sound effects and background noises. We utilize these to create a setting because the background image cannot be changed. In 1.6, there are birds chirping softly to add to Duncan’s announced comfort and also portray that they are outside. Later, crickets can be heard to symbolize nighttime. In addition to setting, dramatic music can also be heard beneath many of the soliloquies to amplify the mood. We feel drama should be ever-present in our show as it is in the play, so suspenseful sound effects are also used.
When working with puppets, one cannot change their facial expression easily. To fix that issue, we often change the tone and style of our voices. In one scene at the end of Act 3, we describe our scene when practicing as “thane gossip”, so we changed the usual dull voices of our thanes to those of gossiping teenage girls, because gossiping is what is occurring in that scene. We also make the character Macduff very sassy sounding, because in the play he clearly “throws shade” at Macbeth and disses him on multiple occasions. Lady Macbeth was portrayed as a loud and over the top drama queen, because that's exactly what she was. Shakespeare wrote in very dramatic speeches for her such as “unsex me here” as well as her dramatic actions, like fainting at the sight of Duncan (on purpose).
Overall, we thought this project choice would be great for group work and equal collaboration. We worked outside of class making puppets and filming for many days, even weeks. For us, making a hand/finger puppet show was a very smart choice. Our minimal artistic skills were used to make funny puppets that acted out our strength, our well written modern script. We painstakingly translated almost every line of the play, and are extremely proud with the outcome. While our show may be long, the drama and comical aspects draw the audience back in.
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