Modern Macbeth
The three students chosen to portray the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth step into the middle of the ring of desks, each holding a copy of their enchantment lines. They speak in unison, their voices intermixing, high and low and perfectly eerie. Double double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. After the first run-through, the class applauds generously, and the teacher lauds their performance.
“You seemed just like sisters,” she says.
Witch #2 laughs. “Yeah, because we look so similar?”
The class laughs with her. Because it’s true. All three of them look nothing alike. And it’s not just them. Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, and Macduff represent all shades and shapes. In our sophomore class of 30 bright-eyed and open-hearted students, anyone who wants a role gets a role. In this way, everyone is given a chance to delve into the words, the characters, and the story. These lines may have been written by a (brilliant) dead white man, but now they belong to all of us.
It is a feeling ten or eleven-year-old me would have scoffed at. As a young and indignant girl, I’d always disregarded Shakespeare. Back then, the only play of his I had heard of was Romeo and Juliet, and I made fun of the ridiculousness of committing suicide at thirteen for the “lover” that you’d known for mere hours. Disliking or even despising Shakespeare is not an uncommon sentiment amongst my peers. To many, including my younger self, his work is too archaic, too difficult, too unreachable.
Now reading Macbeth, however, it seems to me that those negative qualities have more to do with the way Shakespeare is traditionally taught than with the material itself. Through our class readings, scene reenactments, movie analyses, and the occasional sound effects, we have brought the story to life. We have brought to the forefront the ingenious rhymes, pockets of humor, quick-fire dialogue, rich characters, gripping plot lines, and timeless themes. And we have brought different perspectives and discussions to the table, appreciating the seventeenth century work through twenty-first century lenses. We are reclaiming Shakespeare, bringing color to the white pages.
Macbeth has become one of the highlights of my day. I look forward to sitting in rows or groups or one big circle, reading through new scenes, stumbling over the old language, and falling into that rhythm, that iambic pentameter, that da DUM da DUM da DUM, that pulsing heartbeat.
