Macbeth: Fact or Fiction?

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a fascinating figure- resourceful, brave, insightful, reflective, but it’s his inordinate ambition that leads to his downfall. Can the same be said of Scotland’s real Macbeth? Here in Episode 29, we unpack the characters in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth alongside their historical (or mythical) counterparts including Banquo, Malcolm, McDuff, even the witches. We also let you in on a few theatre traditions involving “The Scottish Play” as well as why you can never say the word Macbeth in a theatre.

Episode Notes:

• The word Bard means poet and because William Shakespeare was from the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, he was known as the Bard of Avon. Even though the title was never officially bestowed, in 1769 the Shakespearean actor David Garrick is credited with organizing the Shakespeare Jubilee for which he wrote a song referring to Shakespeare as the Warwickshire Bard which seems to have eventually morphed into The Bard of Avon. Here is a link to Garrick's original song, https://www.bartleby.com/333/77.html
• Sir Laurence Olivier played the title role in Macbeth at the Old Vic Theatre in London in 1937.

Books:

• Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland by Raphael Holinshed
• Scotland: The Story of a Nation by Magnus Magnusson
• The Reign of Elizabeth 1556-1603 by J.B. Black
• The History of Scotland by Sir Walter Scott

Film:

• Macbeth (1948) Directed by and starring Orson Welles
• The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971) Directed by Roman Polanski, starring John Finch
• The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) Directed by Joel Cohen, starring Denzel Washington