Adaptation In Macbeth

In Act 2 Scene 2 of Macbeth, Macbeth returns to Lady Macbeth after killing Duncan. He is traumatized by what he had done and tells Lady Macbeth of his fears about the guards awaking. In Trevor Nunn’s Macbeth there is almost no set or props, which makes the choices of the actors even more vital in being able to express what Shakespeare wanted conveyed by the characters. In Trevor Nunn's adaptation of Macbeth, Sir Ian McKellen’s use of volume and tone in his portrayal of Macbeth conveys Macbeth’s panic and madness, yet also remembers the quiet secrecy of the scene; this acts to enhance the fear written in the character’s lines. At the start of the conversation with Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is trying to stay calm to explain what he thinks had happened as he killed Duncan. During these lines Ian McKellen is rambling and babbling his lines in a continuous spew of words. This choice shows how Macbeth is going mad and vocalizing all of the thoughts that are running through his mind. He starts off calm, but slowly gets more desperate and more rapid as he tells about a drunken guard awaking during the murder. When McKellen says, “Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep,”(48,49) he has a terrified tone of agony because …show more content…
I think slowing down the lines also helps convey the fact that the audience is hearing Macbeth's inner thoughts as he is reviewing what he had done with overwhelming emotions. When he says, “How is't with me when every noise appals me? What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.”(58-60), Ian McKellen uses an astonished tone as he inspects his hands and takes pauses as he is thinking. He asks himself if “all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean”(61) from his hands with fear because he is afraid of his own