Macbeth's Bearded Witches
Crows Dog
have beards?
I can't recall ever having seen one, but almost all keep Banquo's line about
the witches having beards.
It seems to me if you're not going to give the witches beards, you should cut
the line about them having beards.
But once again tonight I've seen a production in which Banquo said they had
beards, and the witches didn't have beards.
Comments?
Sheffield Chastain
"Crows Dog" <crow...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020428022714...@mb-mt.aol.com...
> Has anyone ever seen a production of "Macbeth" in which the witches
actually
> have beards?
No, I can't. In fact, the last production I was in at Berkeley Rep. the
witches (2 women, 1 man) had no hair of any kind. They wore nothing but
loin clothes and were completely hairless - down to shaved heads and
eyebrows. And the line stayed.
sheffield
Robert Stonehouse
They have them in Fuseli's pictures, but those particular pictures
were not taken from an actual production.
ew...@bcs.org.uk
Jo Lonergan
They never cut the line
"What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows"
in Act 4 Scene 3 either, although Macduff has never worn a hat in any
production I've ever seen.
--
Jo
Geralyn Horton
>
> >Has anyone ever seen a production of "Macbeth" in which the witches actually
> >have beards?
>
> They never cut the line
> "What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows"
> in Act 4 Scene 3 either, although Macduff has never worn a hat in any
> production I've ever seen.
Reasons: 1)costumers don't read the play.
2)ditto the director.
3) everybody assumes that audiences don't really listen to
the words: inexplicable dumb shows and noise will do.
Hamlet seldom has a beard, either, though he speaks of
(who?)plucking it off.
--
Geralyn Horton
http://www.stagepage.org
g.l.h...@mindspring.com
Jo Lonergan
<g.l.h...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>Jo Lonergan wrote:
>
>> >Has anyone ever seen a production of "Macbeth" in which the witches actually
>> >have beards?
>>
>> They never cut the line
>> "What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows"
>> in Act 4 Scene 3 either, although Macduff has never worn a hat in any
>> production I've ever seen.
>
>Reasons: 1)costumers don't read the play.
>2)ditto the director.
>3) everybody assumes that audiences don't really listen to
>the words: inexplicable dumb shows and noise will do.
>
>Hamlet seldom has a beard, either, though he speaks of
>(who?)plucking it off.
True. I've seen over a dozen productions of Hamlet, and none of them
had him in a beard.
Another thing: In Act I scene 2 the Queen asks Hamlet to throw off his
nighted colour, and he says he'll obey her. But in almost every
production he continues to wear black (give or take a white shirt)
until Act 5.
--
Jo
Suzanne
<g.l.h...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>Jo Lonergan wrote:
>
>>
>> >Has anyone ever seen a production of "Macbeth" in which the witches actually
>> >have beards?
>>
>> They never cut the line
>> "What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows"
>> in Act 4 Scene 3 either, although Macduff has never worn a hat in any
>> production I've ever seen.
>
>Reasons: 1)costumers don't read the play.
>2)ditto the director.
>3) everybody assumes that audiences don't really listen to
>the words: inexplicable dumb shows and noise will do.
The bit about the witches being bearded throws me, though, when I can
clearly see they don't have beards. It would be so simple either to
cut the line or to give them beards or (in film productions) a few
long hairs on their chins. Women with beards would definitely be
creepy, adding to the supernatural horror of the play, and the
reversal of nature as suggested in Lady's Macbeth's "unsex me" and the
cannibalistic horses. Or if just a few hairs were used, it would
suggest menopausal women, hardly inconsistent with the usual idea of
witches as crones.
-
>Hamlet seldom has a beard, either, though he speaks of
>(who?)plucking it off.
It's not addressed to anyone in particular. He's musing on whether
he's a coward or not and asks who would call him villain, hit him, or
pluck his beard.
Suzanne
Tom Reedy
In the original production maybe some of the actors who played the
witches had beards, and the line was to explain it.
That would make sense especially in light of the theory that the
Macbeth we know is a truncated version for a traveling troupe, which
would need to double and triple roles.
TR
JHB
news:5d776a67.02050...@posting.google.com...
I once had to design a (pretty dreadful, I admit) community production of
Macbeth touring the west country (UK). I started off giving a couple of the
witches (we had two mature female actors, one young one) the sparse, wispy
beards that old under-privileged women sometimes acquire, by sticking on
greying crepe hair and pulling most of it off again .. very effective.
BUT ... after two dress rehearsals both actresses agreed it was much too
uncomfortable and REFUSED to wear it ever again. Very unprofessional I
thought, no male actor that I've glued a beard on has ever complained (I
don't know whether there's a lesson to be learned here or not) ... that's
show business, I guess.
JHB
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.330 / Virus Database: 184 - Release Date: 28/02/02
Geralyn Horton
>(who?)plucking it off.
>
> It's not addressed to anyone in particular. He's musing on whether
> he's a coward or not and asks who would call him villain, hit him, or
> pluck his beard.
Thanks, but I knew that. I use that Rogue speech for
practicing my chops.
>
> Suzanne
Ken Holmes
are ugly hags. Perhaps they magically transform themselves when talking to
Mac and Ban. Theatrically done with a mask. But I agree that if you aren't
going to make line about the beards make sense, cut the damn line.
"Tom Reedy" <tree...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:5d776a67.02050...@posting.google.com...
KQKnave
Donn_B...@helferlein.net writes:
>On Sun, 12 May 2002, "Ken Holmes" <k...@kenholmes.com> wrote:
>>Just because Banquo and Mac see them as ugly hags, doesn't mean that they
>>are ugly hags. Perhaps they magically transform themselves when talking to
>>Mac and Ban. Theatrically done with a mask. But I agree that if you aren't
>>going to make line about the beards make sense, cut the damn line.
>>
>
>Does anybody know the antiquity of 'beard' as meaning a woman acting
>as the companion of a homosexual in order to give him colour as a
>normal man?
>
>Could the 'bearded' witches of 'Macbeth' be evidence of DeVere's
>bisexuality?
>
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
See my demolition of Elliott and Valenza's "Equivalent Words Ratios"!
http://hometown.aol.com/kqknave/EVof.html
See for yourself that the Droeshout portrait is not unusual at all!
http://hometown.aol.com/kqknave/shakenbake.html
Agent Jim