Craziness

            A comparison of Act 3 Scene 4 of Macbeth, as performed by the RSC and the BBC:.
             Although both of these productions are Macbeth, they are interpreted very differently. The BBC version is set for a younger audience and the RSC is more serious and set for real Shakespeare lovers.
             The first difference that I noticed was the costumes. In the BBC version there was a lot of colour and the costumes were very elaborate, the ladies wore evening dresses and the men wore dinner suits but in the RSC production everything was very dull, all the actors wore black or grey and the costumes were very simple. The BBC used red and yellows which I thought showed royalty where as the RSC was all dark with barely any colour, at first you would think it was black and white. I think that they did this to show the seriousness of the play and to represent the deaths in the play. I noticed that the costumes were very mismatched in the RSC, they didn't follow a set pattern. In the BBC production Macbeth had a shoulder holster holding a gun. This showed that he was very insecure, as even though he was at a banquet in his own castle with his friends he still carried a gun.
             This leads to another difference, in the BBC production there was about thiry people set around a huge dining table, which was covered with drink and food where as, in the RSC production there was only four actors at the banquet and the table was imaginary. I think that BBC's version worked better in these aspects.
             The music was very different in both productions, the BBC production had very solemn music where as the RSC version had loud jangly music in the background. After Macbeth's fits in the RSC, Lady Macbeth began to clap rythmically to the music to distract the guests, I liked this as it showed how desparate Lady Macbeth was for everything to go without a fuss. I liked the loud jangly music in the RSC, it reminded me of music that would be played at Royal meetings,.