Macbeth an undoing, p.1
Macbeth (an undoing), page 1
ZINNIE HARRIS
Macbeth (an undoing)
after
SHAKESPEARE
with an afterword by
DAN REBELLATO
Contents
Title Page
Premiere Production
Characters
Macbeth (an undoing)
Act One
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Act Two
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Afterword: ‘What’s Done is Done’ by Dan Rebellato
About the Author
Also by Zinnie Harris from Faber
Copyright
Macbeth (an undoing) was first performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh on 4 February 2023, with the following cast, in alphabetical order:
Macbeth Adam Best
Lady Macbeth Nicole Cooper
Carlin Liz Kettle
Duncan / Murderer 3 / Courtier Marc Mackinnon
Bloody Soldier / Lennox Taqi Nazeer
Lady Macduff Jade Ogugua
Missy / Malcolm Star Penders
Banquo James Robinson
Ross / Murder 1 Laurie Scott
Macduff / Doctor / Courtier 1 Paul Tinto
Mae Farrah Anderson Fryer, Matilde Sabino Hunt, Bella Svaasand
Serving Boy / Murderer 2 Frankie Bunker, Charlie Corliss
Writer/Director Zinnie Harris
Set Designer Tom Piper
Costume Designer & Associate Set Designer Alex Berry
Lighting Designer Lizzie Powell
Composer Oǧuz Kaplangı
Sound Designer Pippa Murphy
Movement Director Emily Jane Boyle
Fight & Intimacy Director Kaitlin Howard
Dramaturg Frances Poet
Casting Director Simone Pereira Hind cdg and Anna Dawson
Assistant Director Nerida Bradley
Characters
Carlin
Missy
Mae
Bloody Soldier
Macbeth
Banquo
Ross
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macduff
Duncan
Lennox
Malcolm
Macduff
Doctor
Murderers, Assistants and a Serving Boy
MACBETH (AN UNDOING)
Act One
One
Darkness.
A woman steps out of the light and looks at the audience. The stage is bare.
Carlin
Knock knock knock
Who’s there?
She looks again out across the stalls, more intent this time.
Misery seekers – here they come. Eyes all nasty and randy for gore. You recognise yourself? Mouths open, tongues out. You’re all the same. Who calls it entertainment – you do! No one is laughing but do you care? Death is what you want – blood, despair, the fall of man. It’ll be as you last saw it – but no matter, things fare better when they are played and played again. You haunt our nights for it, you plague our days – you line up when we leave the stage, more you say give us more. And what more do we have for you ghouls?
Bare boards. Nothing much. If you’re looking for pyrotechnics, you’ll be disappointed – no thunder to speak of, no lightning, no rain – what will you do?
No pit, no withered women or hair wild?
No matter you say – blood cold and unmoving – just give us the play!
The play the play, of course we’re here to do the play.
She sniffs, looks around.
Still
– Bit of the highlands painted on a cloth behind might have been nice. Dab of heather, wee bit of gorse –
We were lucky in one place, we got a mat – cushions for the knees as we writhed. In another we were strung from the rafters – fire in our hair.
Not many rafters in this place – more like rain from the roof –
She looks up to the roof, puts her hand out.
You can tell the health of a theatre by what fills the stage
She looks about.
I have a chair.
Beat.
Knock knock knock
Anyone there?
Oh and there’s an assistant – or the assistant to the assistant – the ones newest to the game – and at the back, script in hand and even now waving me to get off, this is not the way it should begin because this story will be told, the way it has always been told. What else use is it otherwise? The hags on the heath. The woman who went mad. The man who became a tyrant. Aye sir. For no syllables have power like these sweet syllables – for every lord there was a lady – and for every lady there’s a lord and for every lord there’s a king and for every king there’s a castle and words and words and words and hours dreadful, things strange and the next night the same again …
She looks at the audience.
She bends down, knocks on the floor.
Knock knock knock
Alright, blood sucking vermin. You’ll get what you paid for –
No merry ending for you
No dance, no soft turn.
Fog. Mist. Damp like nowhere but in Scotland. A heath.
Winter in May. Snow in June. And a man. Wounded, dripping with blood –
The light is waiting for the soldier, he walks into it.
Doubtful
Doubtful
Doubtful it stood.
The soldier spits.
And the man who says these words – chest caved in, arrow-head in his thigh, face lacerated – but still he spits out what he must –
Doubtful
Doubtful
The man tries to speak.
Wipes his face of blood.
He takes a breath –
Bloody Soldier
Doubtful
Doubtful it stood –
The woman breathes out like she has been holding her breath.
Carlin
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together and choke their art. The merciless Macdonald from the Western Isles –
The bloody man looks at the woman.
Bloody Soldier
These are my words –
Carlin
Then say them – sirrah.
The bloody man looks at the audience. Stops.
Tries to get his head around the pain. Spits again.
Bloody Soldier
Doubtful it stood, as two spent swimmers that do cling together and choke their art. The merciless Macdonald from the Western Isles of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied, and Fortune on his damned quarrel smiling showed like – a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak for brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name, with his brandished steel which smoked with bloody execution carved out his passage –
The woman gets a picnic chair and sits on it.
He looks at her.
Carlin
Go on, go on –
He starts again.
Bloody Soldier
Carved out a passage till he faced the slave – and unseamed him from the nave to the chops and fixed his head upon our battlements – but from whence comfort seemed to come sir discomfort swelled, mark sir – no sooner justice …
Carlin
It’s good, it’s good, keep going –
The soldier pauses for a second.
Don’t let me put you off
I’m only a hag, an old woman, vermin to you.
Bloody Soldier
It’s a message for the king.
Carlin
Oh the king, well, when we see him –
Here on the heath wandering around.
She knocks on the floor.
Another woman, Missy, comes on and a small child, Mae. Mae has bare legs, broken shoes.
Bloody Soldier
No sooner had we won than a Norwegian lord saw an advantage and began a fresh assault, and then Banquo and Macbeth did –
Carlin
Macbeth?
Bloody Soldier
It was as if their cannons were double charged with shot so they doubly redoubled their blows on the foe like they meant to bathe themselves in blood –
Carlin
So they won?
He is surprised to be stopped.
Bloody Soldier
If you attend to the message –
Carlin
The message is a little hard on the ear. Did they win?
Bloody Soldier
We won aye.
We won. And Cawdor the traitor has been captured and before the day is gone –
Carlin
Did you win?
Bloody Soldier
Me?
Carlin
Aye, did you win?
Bloody Soldier
Of course I won, Scotland has my loyalty, so –
Carlin
Aye but did you really?
Bloody Soldier
I …
He looks at his arms and face.
The blood right down his side.
The Carlin knocks.
The younger woman put
I can’t feel my feet
Carlin
Ah –
Bloody Soldier
And my arms are tingling
Carlin
Give him some tea Missy.
Bloody Soldier
What happened to Cawdor?
Carlin
You tell me.
He retches.
He swears under his breath –
The younger woman, Missy, stands up and gives him some tea.
You’re neither in heaven nor hell, which way you’ll go, well we’ll see
You’re in a middle place and here –
The girl giggles.
Have you seen that gash upon your head?
He puts his hand up.
Knock knock knock you’ve heard it before
Knock knock – you were taught it before –
She laughs again.
Knocking seems to be all around.
Bloody Soldier
I just need –
Carlin
Oh he needs, he has something that is needed –
Bloody Soldier
If you’re here to collect my corpse I’m still living
Carlin
We don’t want your corpse –
Bloody Soldier
I’m a messenger, a gun is not what I carry –
Carlin
But this place is too cold for hell he says.
You’re confusing the subject he says, surrounding and confounding what he has to tell and retell –
Bloody Soldier
Get away from me –
Carlin
Knock knock knock
Someone sold us lies.
Bloody Soldier
What lies?
He looks at all of them.
Oh fuck –
The girl and the younger woman, Missy, grab him.
He shouts in pain.
They move him, he shouts again.
I know who you are –
Missy
He knows who we are Ma –
Carlin
Say nothing more.
Bloody Soldier
You shouldn’t be here, you were told to leave the land –
Carlin
And go where?
They drop him.
He starts to crawl away.
Oh, your legs move now –
You can scuttle like a beetle when you want to
Put a foot on his back Missy.
Missy puts a foot on his back.
Missy
Fair is foul and foul is fair,
Crawl through the fog and filthy air.
The girl giggles again.
Bloody Soldier
I have a message to deliver, I have to get to the king –
Carlin
Then message the king.
He tries to crawl away, can’t.
But first – a drum a drum, Macbeth doth come.
The Carlin crouches down, she holds his head.
He cries out in pain.
Say it –
Hail Macbeth thane of Glamis –
Bloody Soldier
Hail Macbeth thane of Glamis.
Missy
Hail Macbeth thane of Cawdor –
Bloody Soldier
Hail Macbeth thane of Cawdor.
Mae
Hail Macbeth who will be king hereafter –
She drops him down, he falls.
Bloody Soldier
I won’t, whatever hellish game you play –
Missy
We’ll catch your wife, we’ll boil your baby in the fire.
Bloody Soldier
So you are what they say –
He crawls away.
She grabs him again.
Carlin
Hail to thee who will be king hereafter.
The Bloody Soldier speaks as if in great pain.
Bloody Soldier
Hail to thee who will be king hereafter.
Macbeth and Banquo come onto the stage, fresh from battle.
Macbeth
Someone spoke – did you hear it?
Banquo
Aye there’s a man on the ground –
Bloody Soldier
I’m dead I’m gone – do not give my words your ear –
The man crawls away –
Macbeth
Wait – you seemed to greet me as Cawdor –?
Bloody Soldier
It wasn’t me
Macbeth
And then king?
Bloody Soldier
Three women stand behind you –
Anything that I spoke came from them.
Macbeth and Banquo look around, they see shapes in the fog.
Macbeth
How can that be?
Bloody Soldier
This is a cursed place, I don’t know but –
Banquo
He’s confused
Bloody Soldier
The day is confused, undone. Look at the sky – both things in one.
He crawls away.
Macbeth turns to the women.
Macbeth
Well … ? Speak – he said his words came from you.
Mae laughs.
Glamis I am, he called me Cawdor I am certain –
Banquo
And king hereafter
Missy laughs.
Missy
King –
Carlin
King –
Mae
King –
Macbeth
In the name of truth what are you?
They stop laughing.
Banquo
If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow speak then to me –
Carlin
Banquo hail
Missy
Hail Banquo
Mae
Hail
Carlin
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater –
Missy
Not so happy, yet much happier –
Banquo
What –?
Mae
You shall get kings though you be none.
Banquo
Shall get kings?
They look at each other.
Macbeth
Stay a while you imperfect speakers – tell us more –
They look around, the fog has returned.
I know I am thane of Glamis but how of –?
The thane of Cawdor lives, and to be king stands not within the prospect of belief, no more than Cawdor. But – say from whence you owe this strange intelligence, or why upon this blasted heath you stop our way with such prophetic greeting? Speak –
The women have gone.
Banquo
Whither are they vanished?
Macbeth
Into the air, and what seemed corporal, melted as breath into the wind. Would they had stayed.
They look around again.
Banquo
Have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner?
Macbeth
I cannot work it out. Your children shall be kings –
Banquo
You shall be king –
Macbeth
And thane of Cawdor too?
Banquo
To the self-same tune and words
Macbeth
We came for water, let’s get it then leave this place –
Banquo
Who’s here?
Ross comes on.
Ross
Macbeth, the king hath happily received the news of thy success –
Macbeth
Ah!
Ross
And when he reads thy personal venture in the rebels fight, his wonders and praises do contend what should be thine or his. We are sent to give you from our royal master thanks.
Macbeth
The service and loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself –
Ross
And for an earnest of a greater honour, he bade me, from him call thee thane of Cawdor in which addition –
Macbeth
Whoa –
Ross
Hail most worthy thane, for it is thine.
Banquo
Can the devil speak true?
Macbeth
The thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?
Ross
Who was the thane lives yet, but under heavy judgement.
Whether he combined with those of Norway or did merely line the rebel with hidden help is not known, but treason is capital. Come to the king, he wishes to greet and thank you himself.
Macbeth
I will
Ross slaps Macbeth’s back and leaves.
Thank you for your pains.
Macbeth and Banquo look at each other.
Banquo
Cawdor!
Macbeth
And your children kings – those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me promised no less to them?
Banquo
It’s strange – I admit but –
Macbeth
Strange? this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, can it? Cannot be good but if ill, why hath it given me an earnest of success commencing with a truth?
