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The Boar's Head Tavern :: Shakespeare :: The Plays :: Lighting Design for Macbeth Author Topic: Lighting Design for Macbeth (Read 1,806 times) Tyunglebower Money Lender member is offline Joined: Aug 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 3 Location: Maryland Lighting Design for Macbeth « Thread Started on Aug 12, 2004, 5:05pm » I have no experience with lighting design, and would welcome the feed back of any members here who may have experience in that field. But if I were directing Shakespeare's Macbeth, there would be a very specific lighting design I would like to try, which on paper would seem to work for me, but having never been able to test it, i cannot say for sure. To me, the Scottish play has always been the darkest of Shakespeare's collection. True, evil and darkness, and sinister deeds take place in many of the Bard's works, but my personal interpretation is that it posesses the most evil OVERALL atmousphere for the entirety of the piece. When I read it, I get a distinct notion that no matter what seen I am reading, there is always an intagible something, a force, a presence of some sort, watching over events. The whole play I feel effuses the same sort of creepy, "I am not alone, even though I know I should be", sort of uneasiness as one may feel standingalone in a graveyard at night, or in a supposed haunted house. The further into the play we go, the more this ominous, unspoken, hidden evil seems to permeate the action and setting of the play. Pursuent to this, I envision a simple lighting design which starts off regularly enough in the first scene or two, but then extremley slowly, and almost imperciptibly, begins to get darker, throughout the course of the entire play, until the final scenes, (at least up until, "tommorow and tommorow", would be lit only in a sort of haunting, candle light sort of light...where we are almost observing shadows, instead of actors performing across the stage. This so called "super-fade", as I said would not be noticble right away, but as the play wore on, and the evil of Macbeth, and the spirits of the time start to gain strength, one would suddenly look up and notice, "its darker and creepier in here,". I feel this works, because despite his total odious nature, (with which, unlike many, I have no sympathy at all), even the evil Macbeth feels surrounded by things more powerful and evil, even then himself. He acts scared of unknown things and bumps in the night through half the play, and eventually he becomes numb to it...but it is still there. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Forum Jump--------------------» Home--------------------» Shakespeare--------------------- The Plays- The Sonnets- The Man- General Shakespeare Discussion--------------------» The English Renaissance--------------------- Shakespeare's Contemporaries- Other Renaissance-Related Works- General Renaissance Discussion--------------------» In Performance--------------------- Film Productions- Modern Theatrical Productions- Renaissance Theatrical Productions- General Performance Discussion--------------------» General--------------------- General- Non-Renaissance Literature/Drama- Criticism Discussion- Reading Clubs--------------------» Site Info--------------------- Site Announcements- Questions and Suggestions