Following a London West End run in December 2007, a sold-out limited engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March 2008, and a subsequent eight-week run on Broadway, director Rupert Goold’s gripping stage production of Macbeth was filmed for television at the end of 2009. Patrick Stewart in his triumphant, Tony-nominated performance as the ambitious general, and Tony-nominated Kate Fleetwood as his coldly scheming wife. On March 31, 2011, Macbeth was the proud recipient of a George Foster Peabody Award.

In support of the GREAT PERFORMANCES telecast, WNET.ORG is distributing 30,000 copies of a Macbeth poster & teachers’ guide to schools nationwide, which will assist educators in utilizing the PBS broadcast in the classroom. This activity-based analysis of the play is illustrated by various lesson plans and activities.  After the October 6 premiere PBS broadcast, the complete film will be available for viewing online at here on the Great Performances Web site and video.pbs.org.

Download the Education Guide

Download the poster

The co-production between WNET.ORG and Illuminations Television, in association with the BBC, stars Sir Patrick Stewart in his triumphant, Tony-nominated performance as the ambitious general, and Tony-nominated Kate Fleetwood as his coldly scheming wife.

The production, though retaining the Goold’s exciting concept of relocating the bloody action to a nameless 20th-century militaristic society, has been rethought in vivid filmic terms. The movie, marking Goold’s cinematic debut, will be presented on PBS as part of the Great Performances series Wednesday, October 6, at 9 p.m. (check local listings).

Watch a preview:

Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. Originating at England’s innovative Chichester Festival Theatre, the play – the Bard’s shortest tragedy — is taken out of its Scottish context to offer an allegory of war and the quest for power in the modern world. Writing for the Hollywood Reporter after its London opening, Ray Bennett enthused, “Seldom can Shakespeare’s murky Scottish tragedy ‘Macbeth’ have been staged with so much clarity and emotional punch as in Rupert Goold’s exhilarating production.”

When the production opened stateside at BAM, Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised Stewart’s “fearsome insight and theatrical fire.”

Elysa Gardner in USA Today observed Stewart’s “witty, nuanced work, which reveals Macbeth as an intelligent, rational person driven to madness by outside forces and his own violent transgressions. There is something of Lear — and Hamlet, too — in this portrait of a thoughtful, corruptible man.”

This is not your grandfather’s “Macbeth.” Shot in High-Definition at Welbeck Abbey in the U.K., Goold maintains the atmosphere and tone of the stage version, heightening the Shakespearean classic with an edgy style reminiscent of Illuminations’ recent film adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, which was also broadcast on PBS in April 2010 by THIRTEEN’s Great Performances. Among the actors recreating their roles for the film are Michael Feast (Macduff); Martin Turner (Banquo); Scott Handy (Malcolm); Paul Shelley (Duncan); Suzanne Burden (Lady Macduff); and Christopher Patrick Nolan (The Porter).

In support of the presentation, WNET.ORG is offering a Teachers’ Guide for educators to utilize the PBS broadcast in classrooms around the country. Hosted on www.pbs.org/gperf, the activity-based analysis of the play is illustrated by various lesson plans and activities. After the October 6 PBS broadcast premiere, the complete film will be available for viewing online at pbs.org/gperf and video.pbs.org.

Macbeth was produced by John Wyver and Sebastian Grant, with Mark Bell as executive producer for the BBC; for Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer, and David Horn is executive producer.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS.

In this production the actors decided that they preferred the rule of Claudius, a peace-keeping King who enjoyed a good party! This is important in the staging as it is when we, the audience, and the Court first see Claudius as King. The staging of this opening court scene is instrumental in revealing the relationships between the characters in Hamlet. When developing the world of the play the designer, Rob Jones, was inspired by photographs of contemporary European Royal Families in Hello Magazine. Have a look at this website and find pictures of contemporary royal families. Look at how the pictures have been taken and what they portray about the family. What are the most important qualities that these people have?

The above clip is for use in an activity found in the Hamlet Teachers’ Guide. [download the full PDF of the guide]

Every actor should understand exactly what they are saying in order to make the most of their role. For the first two to three weeks of the rehearsal process Gregory Doran gave the actors three key rules when they were reading the play: 1) That they don’t read their own part 2) That they can’t comment on their own part 3) That they can only use information that they already know and can’t see ahead in the play. These rules enable the actors to hear their part and discover new things from the rest of the cast. Each scene of the play was done twice; first, Greg asked the actors to read the Shakespearean text aloud, and then they discuss the meaning of the words and any misunderstandings, after this the actors paraphrased the scene in their own words to see if they discovered anything new.

Edward Bennett (Laertes), and Mariah Gale (Ophelia) worked from this basis and made further decisions about the relationships between the characters. They decided that the words of advice Polonius gives are so familiar that the children know what’s coming. Watch the scene and compare it to how you felt about the characters.

The above clip is for use in an activity found in the Hamlet Teachers’ Guide. [download the full PDF of the guide]

Hamlet’s Attempt to Kill Claudius -

Greg Doran decided to repeat the image of Priam hesitating with his sword in the air, as shown by the player, when Hamlet takes the dagger to Claudius.

Watch The Player’s speech immediately followed by Hamlet’s attempt to kill Claudius. What are the similarities? How important is it to look at these two speeches together?

The above clips are for use in an activity found in the Hamlet Teachers’ Guide. [download the full PDF of the guide]

In Greg Doran’s rehearsals, the actors decided that Osric is a ‘political flunkie’ – an ambitious young employee of the court, hoping to impress Claudius. They used clothes to convey this – the production is in modern dress so the designer used clothes that a modern audience quickly understands as conveying ambition and business: a sharp suit, slick haircut and shiny shoes! Does Osric know he is inviting Hamlet to his death? Greg’s company decided that Osric did know that he was asking Hamlet to come to his death. He uses charm and a big winning smile to manipulate Hamlet. Later in the production, Osric makes sure he gives the correct sword to Laertes, giving the audience another clue that he is definitely aware of the plan. Ryan Gage’s character is incredibly detailed – at the very end of the production, Osric silently shakes hands with Fortinbras because he has spotted that, now Claudius is dead, Fortinbras is his new boss.

Watch Osric’s scene. Does the audience see the fine detail mentioned above? Do they think it’s important for the actor to have this detail in creating their character?

The above clip is for use in an activity found in the Hamlet Teachers’ Guide. [download the full PDF of the guide]