Thursday, May 13, 2010

Macbeth Puppets





So this is a random video, but I thought it was kind of interesting and strange at the same time. It's Act 2 scene 2 from Macbeth, except in puppet form. The actor/puppets voices get irritating after a while, and the delivery of the lines is not something you would classify as a great performance of Macbeth. Despite this I enjoyed that whoever made this remained faithful to Shakespeare and actually used what he had written to make their puppet show. I saw a bunch of other videos of "shortened" versions of Shakespeare's plays or ones that claimed to help the viewer to better understand the performances, but in actuality resulted in the actors screaming nonsense and making the plot so confusing and jumbled that it is impossible to see what is really going on. Even though I wouldn't call this a great interpretation of Macbeth, I still loved that you could read along with the lines being spoken for once.


Some questions this video might raise:
1. Can Shakespeare be performed and understood in ways other than the theatre or in movie form?

2. Are puppets an appropriate way to present the story of Macbeth?

3. Are there better ways in which to tell the story of Macbeth, and how could this medium of story-telling be improved to enhance understanding?

4. Is it necessary to use Shakespeare's original (or mostly original) writings in telling this story?

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