Shakespeare, again

 

I've been watching (in segments) the recent Patrick Stewart Macbeth that was aired on PBS.  I think it's terrific, wonderfully inventive and original not only in its scenic and setting updating (sort of Eastern Europe 1930s) but in the performances.  Stewart is compelling, and whether the idea is his or the director's does something I haven't seen in other performances -- or rather makes something clear to me that hadn't been before:  how Macbeth after the murder grows in certainty of power and thuggish ruthlessness while his wife loses her grip, reversing their earlier positions.  The whole production is based on (what would seem to be) a modern ruthlessness:  the death of Cawdor at the beginning is shown in a quick scene of  a figure in a tiny prison chamber tied to a chair with a bag over his head; a soldier enters, shoots him in the head forthwith; the end.  Which makes Malcolm's speech about "Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it" just disinformation or pandering to the King:  not really justified, however effective.  But the horrid sinks and tiled kitchens and hospital scenes -- and that elevator! -- are revelatory.  I haven't got to Banquo's murder yet nor the second witch scene.  

But I am more and more attracted to Shakespeare on film and TV.  It resembles in my mind the shift in how we regarded classical music with the coming of LPs in the 50s, and on into tape and CD and MP3 and iTunes.  No longer was it tied to specific performances you went to see and sat through attentively; now it was there whenever, played and listened to with whatever degree of attention you chose, the good parts replayed and the boring parts skipped.  Of course Shakespeare could be treated that way if you leafed through a Complete Plays.  But the power of embodiment is all, and bodies and faces (and voices, muted, whispering, cajoling, muttering, so hard to do on stage) are so much more present in film and video.  I once saw Olivier on Broadway ("Becket") and could hardly see his face, and remember nothing of it.  I'm sure that's not generally true, but the movies are great revealers -- and because the movies that DON"T work are the straight old-fashioned ruff-and-pantaloon ones, a work of reimagination is required, that sometimes succeeds (Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet, Ethan Hawke's Hamlet) and sometimes fails(ditto, both in parts.)   Stewart's Macbeth works.  The way he feeds the two murderers a sandwich, getting more antic all the time, was truly new and really worked.  It was chilling to watch a mass murderer hit his stride.