Macbeth

Shakespeare’s plays are full of references to food and cookery, but they’re not always very appetizing. In Hamlet, the ghost of elder Hamlet describes the effect of the poison that Claudius pours into his ears, how it winds its way…

“L’opera senza amore!” That was the Italians’ reaction to Verdi’s Macbeth when it premiered in Florence in 1847. Despite its immediate success and subsequent popularity, an opera that involved no great love affair struck audiences as an oddity.

Artist Paul Glenshaw describes drawing John Gregory’s bas-relief of Macbeth, the three witches, and their cauldron, with a focus on the vast cloud of smoke made from stone. “I realized as I drew it that the smoke was as much…

Shakespeare’s witches, like nearly all witches of Shakespeare’s time, have their roots in the kitchen more than in the study.

Dramaturgical intern Sarah Lind previously introduced us to the historical Bedlam asylum, the setting for Folger’s current production of Macbeth. Today, she looks more closely at how the production uses Bedlam to explore this Restoration version of Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy, and…

Musical Director Robert Eisenstein provides insights on the music performed in Folger’s current production of Macbeth.

Dramaturgical intern Sarah Lind takes us on a tour of Bedlam’s history in anticipation of Macbeth’s first preview on September 4th.

Take this quiz to see if you can identify lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth or the Restoration-era version as adapted and amended by Sir William Davenant.

Adapted by William Davenant and first performed in 1664, the version of the Scottish play taking to the Folger stage in September was the most popular one well into the 18th century despite—or perhaps because of—the numerous departures from Shakespeare’s original…

From her work translating ‘Macbeth’ for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Play on! project, Migdalia Cruz shares reflections about ambitions, loyalty, the witches, and the porter scene.

Stephen Greenblatt’s new book Tyrant explores tyranny in Shakespeare’s plays. On this podcast episode, he discusses characters like Richard III and Macbeth; how societies allow tyranny to pop up; and how and why Shakespeare used its depiction in his work to stir the audiences of his time.

Restoration Shakespeare was a complex theatrical experience that integrated song, music, dance, and acting; indeed, music and dance, alongside stage machines and movable scenes, were central to the success of Restoration theatre more generally.