Directors Note

When Macbeth and his close friend Banquo first encounter the witches, Banquo
gives Macbeth, and the audience, a warning, “To win us to our harm, the
instruments of darkness tell us truths.” The witches never lie to Macbeth. Instead
they fuel his darkest desires and wishes with truths of what could be. If Macbeth
had not murdered his king, would he still have eventually become king or, did
Macbeth force the prophecy to truth by giving in to his basest nature?
As the audience we are thrust into a fantastic world. We are presented with many
questions that don’t have clear answers. Even after the events of the story are
concluded, you can’t help but imagine what happens after. Every prediction the
witches made comes true, which leads us to think that, after everything is
concluded, Banquo’s descendants eventually ascend the throne. We are left
wondering what became of Banquo’s son, Fleance, and how this prophecy may
also be fulfilled.
In this shortened version, I cut the script to heavily focus on our relationship with
fate. Is it set in stone, or do we have the power to change it? What is free will if
the witches can peer into the future and predict our destiny with absolute
certainty? With Lady Macbeth in particular, we see a viscous and unyielding drive
to escape her life’s circumstances.
I also wanted to explore how fixating on the future pulls us away from the reality
of our present. In pursuit of his ambitious future, the very real love that Macbeth
has for his wife and comrades melts away, until he is left in a nightmarish reality,
clinging to prophecies that lead him deeper into his depravity and detachment.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are lured from the beautiful now into a nightmare of
“what if.” What you ,the audience, have to decide is if these figures were destined
for evil, or if their choices ultimately determined their future.