Macbeth
by Gaslight Baker Theatre
Aug. 28 - Aug. 29 (2021)
A brave general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.
Directed by Bridget Gates
The Tragedy of Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Audition dates:
Saturday, August 28, 2021, 2 pm
Sunday, August 29, 4 pm
Performance dates:
Fridays and Saturdays, October 22-November 6, 2021, 8 pm
Sundays, October 24-31, 2 pm
Saturday, November 6, 2 pm
No prior Shakespeare performance experience required to audition for this production. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script.
Character Descriptions
Macbeth: A Scottish general and the thane of Glamis who is led to wicked thoughts by the prophecies of the witches. Unlike Shakespeare’s great villains, such as Iago in Othello and Richard III in Richard III, Macbeth is never comfortable in his role as a criminal. He is unable to bear the psychological consequences of his atrocities.
Lady Macbeth: Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position. Early in the play, she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the two, as she urges her husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown. After the bloodshed begins, however, Lady Macbeth falls victim to guilt and madness to an even greater degree than her husband.
The Witches: The “black and midnight hags” who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms, spells, and prophecies. Their predictions prompt him to murder Duncan, to order the deaths of Banquo and his son, and to blindly believe in his own immortality.
Banquo: The brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. In a sense, Banquo’s character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquo’s ghost—and not Duncan’s—that haunts Macbeth.
King Duncan: The good King of Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition for the crown, murders. Duncan is the model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler.
Macduff: A Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the start. He eventually becomes a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth. The crusade’s mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and young son.
Malcolm: The son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order following Macbeth’s reign of terror.
Hecate: The goddess of witchcraft, who helps the three witches work their mischief on Macbeth.
Fleance: Banquo’s son, who survives Macbeth’s attempt to murder him.
Ross: A Scottish nobleman.
The Murderers: A group of ruffians conscripted by Macbeth to murder Banquo, Fleance (whom they fail to kill), and Macduff’s wife and children.
Porter: The drunken doorman of Macbeth’s castle. In our production, he's Hecate's henchman and has lots of stage time.
Lady Macduff: Macduff’s wife. The scene in her castle provides our only glimpse of a domestic realm other than that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She and her home serve as contrasts to Lady Macbeth and the hellish world of Inverness.
Donalbain: Duncan’s son and Malcolm’s younger brother.
