Macbeth: Character Descriptions

With auditions coming up next Monday & Tuesday ( see here for more information! ), I'm getting excited by our Macbeth on the boardwalk, dans le funfair, mit der sandcastles.

A common theme between both this and Tempest can be summed up from the Coldplay lyrics for "Viva la Vida:"

"And I discovered that 
My castles stand
Upon pillars of stone
And pillars of sand...."

Macbeth CharacterDescriptions
MACBETH.   (Male) Avery minor soldier at the outset, self-effacing, jocular, who becomes by acombination of pressure, fear, and ambition, more bloody.  It is important that he radiate a sense ofwarmth and kindness that draws the audience in, despite his increased monstrosity.  He should be always in danger of salvation—justbefore he rejects it.  In some ways, heis driven by a need to please and prove himself to others.
LADYMACBETH. (Female) A powerful andalluring woman, whose beauty lies not in her face, but in her fascination.  She is of better birth than Macbeth, andfeels the unevenness in their stations, and her present situation keenly.  Her marriage was a love match, but to aMachiavellian woman, who would sleep with Duncan to get Macbeth his firstadvancement (pre-show), and then ruthlessly urge Macbeth to kill to get thenext.  This production is particularlyinterested in her statement that she had a child, who seems not to exist.  Unless Lady Macbeth's tryst with Duncanproduced an heir…whom she disposed of while very young.  The death of children will prove her undoing.
DUNCAN.     (Male)The King is not necessarily an oldman, although he is older than the Macbeths, but he more perfectly resemblesthe rowdy boisterousness of Henry VIII, even in his later years.  He is lecherous, and has enjoyed an affairwith Lady Macbeth, for which he gives her husband advancements.  As a consequence, both Macbeths are indebted and resentful of him.
MALCOLM.  (Male) Theyoung prince, eldest child of Duncan.  Hehas reacted to his father's wantonness with an almost Puritanicalsanctity.  But once he is forced to flee,he takes on, Hamlet-like, the face of wantonness and excess, to look like a harmlessfool to others, and so to spare his life. After his father's death, there is the look of one who has grown up toofast.
DONALBAIN.(Female) A few years younger thanMalcolm, and in the full bloom of her youth, she is engaged to Mentieth.  The men in her life have all worked to keepher innocent of the ills of this world, or to make light of them, but when shereturns for war, she proves the true daughter of a war-like king.  (Thischaracter will take Siward's lines as Donalbain's.)
BANQUO.     (Male)In some ways, Banquo is Macbeth's doppelganger, his other self if he hadlet his conscience rule.  He has a child,but no wife (she died in childbirth), and the Macbeths are both friends andgodparents to his child, Fleance.  He isof a humble gentry that spans the way between dukes and common men, so that atfirst it was Macbeth's honour to be befriended by Banquo, and then his peerage,and now his usurping sovereign.  LikeMacbeth, we must see a real warmth from him, a deep and painful friendship.
FLEANCE.     (Maleor Female) Banquo's young child, about eleven years old or so, and full ofthat sort of careless innocence that kicks at beehives to see what willhappen.  The Macbeths are his secondparents, and he is especially fond of Lady Macbeth who has taken him under herwing as a surrogate for her own child. Later, Fleance is saved through the intervention of Mentieth, who bringsFleance disguised to Dunsinane, to tend on Lady Macbeth in her madness (taking the Gentlewoman's lines).
MACDUFF.  (Male)A bull of a man, this fellow is an army all in himself.  Second in rank only to the king, he isfiercely loyal to his motherland, even before the mother of his children.  His lineage may be as old or older than theking's own, and so firmly ensconced within his rights, he has noambitions.  There is great love beween heand his wife—very Catholic in its size, and in its dealings with the world,quite open.
LADYMACDUFF. (Female) Also from oldfamily, whose lineage crosses over many continents and many kings, her loyaltyto the idea of kings transcends who the king may be.  Protected by her birthright, she is one ofthose sturdy women who's accustomed to speaking her mind, as though the wholeworld were her child or her subject.  Herblind patriotism, and refusal to budge destroys herself and all her youngchildren, however.
MACDUFFCHILDREN. (Males and females) Theeldest, hopefully a boy, worships his father to the point of defending himagainst every accurate accusation.  Thenext eldest, a girl, is at that age when everything's a joke, especially anyonefoolish enough to be serious.  Ifpossible, another child, very young and innocent; the type who can makesandcastles for hours without saying a word. And a baby, played by a doll (notauditioned!).
ROSS.             (Female)The silly spinster aunt of the Macduffs. She is the type of woman who tries to be everyone's friend, playing allsides and pretending she's a peacemaker. Therefore, through her foolish simplicity, she becomes an unwittingpawn.  Only when her family is destroyeddoes she choose a side.  A coward, whorather than face a crisis, denies it.
LENNOX.      (Maleor female) A lord who enjoyed the excesses that Duncan's court allowed, andnow enjoys and encourages the excesses of Macbeth's court.  Like Ross, he is very willing to play bothsides of the field.  But where Ross doesso to stay unnoticed, Lennox does so to remain on top.  He is not ambitious, allowing others to takethe fall should things go sour.  At best,he may be called a ruthless survivor.
MENTIETH.  (Male)The fiancé of Donalbain, Mentieth is the son of a high lordling, perfectlyfit for the younger daughter of a king.  Heis fresh-faced and noble in every deeper sense, perfectly ready to go into waras he is to go into love.  However, wheneveryone flees after Duncan's death, he is trapped in Macbeth's service, wherehe plays the role of the obedient servant…even while undermining thetyrant.  It is he who takes the ThirdMurderer's lines, saving Fleance .  He willalso take Young Siward's lines at the end of the play, where poor Mentieth'sheroism will be paid with death at Macbeth's hands.
FIRSTWITCH. (Male or Female) Most often inthe guise of a beachcomber, a scavenger who lives off the hoity-toity noblemenwho come to picnic.  There is somethingof the seagull in 'em.  (Will also play the First Murderer andSeyton.)
SECONDWITCH. (Male or Female) A jack of alltrades, who now sells hot dogs, now ring-tosses, now nickelodeons, or plays thehurdy-gurdy; the keeper of the games.  (Will also play the Second Murderer and thePorter.)
THIRDWITCH. (Male or Female) A child or someonechild-like, the type who is amused by carousels.  (Maydouble as one of the many children needed!)