• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    511 months ago

    Frank Kermode has a book called Shakespeare’s Language, which I find very helpful for reading Shakespeare, and it includes a chapter on Macbeth.

    In terms of versions, the one starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench is very dark and weird, and also very good. You can also watch the whole thing online, which helps!

    There’s also a version that I like a lot that unfortunately was directed by a certain disgraced director and sex offender, and which I’m therefore reluctant to recommend, but possibly you could pirate Roman Polanski’s version, which is genuinely nightmarish, as Macbeth should be.

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝
      link
      fedilink
      English
      311 months ago

      My Mum was an English literature teacher and it was the Polanski version that she recommended to pupils.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝
    link
    fedilink
    English
    411 months ago

    Go and see it done live by an experienced company - all Shakespeare makes a lot more sense when seen live. I was off sick when my school went to see Julius Caesar at a local theatre and every agreed it was terrible but I went to see it at the RSC and was blown away. I got to see them put on the Scottish play and it was a revelation.

    Slogging through books explaining it all in detail can really kill your enjoyment of a play.