Two Macbeths

Macbeth, as we all know, is a jinxed play.

— Charles Marowitz, 'a macbeth'

Over 20 years ago, I took a course titled 'Shakespeare Adaptations' as part of my Theatre degree. The final assignment involved comparing two Shakespeare adaptations or writing my own. I tackled two Macbeth adaptations from one of my favourite writers/creators, Richard Schechner, and someone I knew more as a director than a writer, Charles Marowitz.

That paper became something much more involved than I originally anticipated and led me to start writing my own adaptation of Macbeth. The key words there are start writing because I never finished it.

Every now and then, I pull up the text, read through the original paper, or pull out the two books that inspired me in the first place. This project has lingered on my mind for a very long time now. I would like to complete it this year.

This post is my public marker to hold myself accountable to finishing this. I started some of the work a few weeks ago when I discovered the website I originally started publishing this project on, macbethproject.blogspot.com, had been brought down. It still survives on archive.org (one of the best things, if not the best thing, to be developed in the internet age) so I pulled all the text off to give it a new home on my website.

Learn more on the page below, and eventually the text will be published on here as well.

The Weird Sisters Project

A Shakespeare adaptation in progress — and the scholarship that started it.

Four SidesJames McCullough

The Weird Sisters and Dark Powers: Metaphysical Aid in Two Adaptations

A university paper written in a single frantic weekend that somehow became the seed of everything else. A close reading of Charles Marowitz’s a macbeth and Richard Schechner’s Makbeth — and what happens when you stop treating Shakespeare as sacred.

Four SidesJames McCullough

I can't find a copy of the Makbeth text online, but here is an article from the NY Times on the original performance.