BeorcRadNyd's Mindstream

“o? by whom?” (a classic)

“what, you egg” (also a classic)

“twas a rough night”

macduff telling lady macbeth he can’t say what happened because she’s a woman and then spinning around and IMMEDIATELY telling banquo within FULL earshot of ladymac

“that i did… kill them… 👉👈”

macbeth giving the whole “blood will have blood” speech and then going “…….what time is it”

the witches, whom we’ve just seen making a potion of baby parts, saying “something wicked” about macbeth. your king steps onto the scene and these literal actual witches go “oh, bitch? a bitch?”

malcolm’s I Fuck Too Much Speech

and then. when he takes it back. he says “why are you silent?” which implies macduff is just. sitting there.

“take thy face hence”

To us, a comedy is a funny play and a tragedy is a cathartic one.

In Shakespeare’s time, a comedy was a play with a happy ending.

A tragedy was a play with a sad ending.

That is it.

Shakespeare was a comedic writer. All of his plays are funny to some degree and I suspect the man couldn’t write seriously if he tried.

A lot of the time modern troupes miss this and play the tragedies straight. They aren’t supposed to be. They are supposed to be darkly, ironically funny.

Because after all, these plays were written to be performed in inn yards where everyone was drunk. That did not necessarily exclude the actors.

-Lady Macbeth’s deeply extra “Woe, alas! What? In our house???” when she’s trying to play it cool after Duncan’s death. (Honestly, playing Lady Macbeth as Moira Rose for the entirety of 2.4 would be INSPIRED.)

-The Murderers that Macbeth hires both being total dunces and Macbeth just dissing them constantly.

-THE ENTIRE BANQUET SCENE IS STRAIGHT OUT OF A SITCOM. Yes, even the “it will have blood, they say” is darkly hilarious if you time it right. The thanes are all sitting there awkwardly while their king screams at the air and has a deeply Surburban White Couple argument with his wife, and neither he nor she will let them acknowledge that it’s weird, and it’s GREAT.

I remember being told in high school that Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s darkest texts because the Porter is the only comic relief. The Porter scene is the only bit of clowning (which is why I detest the Porter as an audience member no matter how well he’s played—the Clown characters bore me!), but I love situational dark humor, and the text of Macbeth is rife with it.

And that makes the tragedy of it hit much harder! When we see Macbeth be a himbo who is Trying His Best, and Ross and Lennox exchanging Pointed Looks, and Macduff get emails every day, and Lady Macbeth snark at her husband… then it hurts much, much more when Macbeth’ is forsaken in his vulnerability again and again, and Ross and Lennox bring news of atrocities they’re powerless to stop, and Macduff grieves, and Lady Macbeth unravels. Grimdark productions fall flat for me because they deny the characters the humanity the text enables.

Hey friends!

Scottish myth and folklore

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