The Weird Sisters and Dark Powers:

Metaphysical Aid in Two Adaptations

Material from earlier theatre can be brought into a production in the same way as personal
material is brought in. Just as the performer refines, distorts, condenses, and selects from his life
experiences, so fragments from earlier dramas can be worked into the play at hand. Only since
the intrusion of stupid laws and notions regarding originality has this rich vein of creativity been
stopped. Shakespeare and Moliere without their plagiarisms would be much poorer playwrights.
An art that is in essence transformational and transmutational should not surrender any of its
sources, its deep springs. The modern idea of originality is a lawyer-capitalist construction geared
to protecting private property and promoting money-making. It is anti-creative, and inhibits the
reworking of old themes in the light of new experience. It is the constant reworking and
elaboration of old material- call it plagiarism if you like- that is the strongest sinew of tradition.
- Richard Schechner

...what's essential in the better works of William Shakespeare is a kind of imagery-cum-

mythology which has separated itself from the written word and can be dealt with by artists in
isolation from the plays that gave it birth. And, by insisting on the preservation of the
Shakespearian language, as if the greatness of the plays were memorialized only there, the theatre
is denying itself a whole slew of new experiences and new artefacts which can be spawned from
the original sources, in exactly the same way that Shakespeare spawned his works from
Holinshed, Boccaccio, Kyd, and Belleforest, the future of Shakespearian production lies in
abandoning the written works of William Shakespeare and devising new works which are
tangential to them, and the stronger and more obsessive the Shakespeare Establishment becomes,
the more it will hold back the flow of new dramatic possibilities which transcend what we call,
with a deplorable anal-retentiveness, the canon.
- Charles Marowitz
The two men quoted above, Richard Schechner and Charles Marowitz, both believed in the
practice of transmutating texts into an entirely new production. Schechner did not limit himself in
the genre or content of the texts he used as his sources, while Marowitz has created several
adaptations of Shakespeare. Both men, in the spring of 1969, developed and produced a version
of Shakespeare's Macbeth: Marowitz wrote a macbeth, and Schechner wrote Makbeth. Separated
by an ocean, both Marowitz and Schechner developed a play that was set on transcending the
original text to give the audience a new experience from the old play. Though approaching it from
different theoretical viewpoints and rehearsal exercises, they achieved their goal by expanding the
magical and creative forces within the play.

By magical and creative forces, I write specifically of the Witches, or the Weird Sisters. In the
original text, we are given glimpses of the magical capabilities they possess through their
prophetic visions and the creation of the apparitions towards the end. Marowitz and Schechner
take this mysterious force's potential and multiply it tenfold to make the Witches more present in
their versions of the play. With this new found presence, the witches consume Macbeth and take
him on a fantastical journey, a shamanistic hallucination. Macbeth shares his experiences as a
shaman with the audience, which in turn helps the productions transcend the original text to create
a new understanding of the story.

Giving the Weird Sisters more power and influence in the plot could be seen as a treacherous
thing to do, considering all of the horror stories of how the witches haunt productions of Macbeth.
Charles Marowitz even provides his Macbeth stories in his introduction to the text, and Richard
Schechner details some of the disastrous events which unfolded during the rehearsal period for his
group. Despite the warnings in the past about tinkering with the play, the authors went ahead and
changed the structure, as well as major components of the text. For Marowitz, Macbeth was not
one character struggling within himself during the story, but three individuals fighting for control
of Macbeth's actions. Schechner gave the Weird Sisters the more appropriate name the Dark
Powers, and tied them into the plot much more than Shakespeare may have intended.
Apart from character additions, subtractions and melding of characters (both cast lists include the
primary characters only: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Duncan, Banquo, Malcolm, MacDuff, and the
three Witches), the structure of the play is altered to be a series of miniature scenes that move
quickly through the plot. Both playwrights approached the creation of the text through the
techniques of collage. Scenes were broken up, moved around, repeated, and, in the case of
Makbeth, overlapped. Marowitz explains the difference between his approach to collage and
Shakespeare's application as this: "Shakespeare's Aristotelian dramatic format obliged him to
'unfold' stories, 'develop' characters and 'illustrate' themes. But a collage version of a known play
assumes a pre-knowledge of the original and although it tends to cover familiar ground ... it is
more concerned with the application of all these things in order to foster another concept."

To reach the final text of their plays, Marowitz sat down and wrote, edited, and played with
Shakespeare's text. Marowitz was primarily concerned with the usage of language and how he
could control Shakespeare's words to get into the heart of the play more. On the other hand,
Schechner at first hoped the play would be developed collaboratively through his ensemble called
the Performance Group. When that approach failed, Schechner took on the role of writer and
based his text on the workshop exercises the Performance Group had gone through the previous
few months. Schechner dealt with the action of the play and the dynamic relationships between
characters or groups.

The use of the collage style of editing is appropriate for these two adaptations, because of their
focus on the magical elements. Every line or event of repetition, or any scene overlapping another
draws in the magic of the Witches and how they control this play. The Witches are the maestros of
these adaptations and the characters are mere pawns in their games. In a macbeth, the Witches are
ever present as the murder of Duncan and Banquo are shown in quick succession, and then the
Witches pull the bodies offstage. Later in the play, the Witches re-appear, after Duncan and
Banquo have been revived, only to have Banquo die again so Macbeth can be alone with the
Witches. After this second death, Macbeth is put under the impression that he is invincible:

MACBETH: Shall Banquo's issue ever

Reign in this kingdom?
1ST WITCH: Be bloody,
2nd WITCH: bold,
3rd WITCH: and resolute;
1st WITCH: Laugh to scorn the power of man
For none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
MACBETH: Shall Banquo's issue ever reign...
WITCH: Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnan Wood to High Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.
MACBETH: That will never be.

This sequence of events occurs towards the beginning of the play, and for the rest of the play,
Macbeth obsesses about this prophecy. In contrast to this, the action in Makbeth follows more
closely to the original. When Makbeth hears of how he will be defeated, he has already murdered
Duncan and Banquo, and is about to search out Malcolm. Makbeth makes the comment, "My
mind and heart shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear" (20) but then is murdered shortly
there after. The Dark Powers' grasp on Makbeth was so strong after their first encounter that no
reassurances were needed. Makbeth has barely heard the Dark Powers vision when he says:
This prophetic soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, why has it given me earnest of
success commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to the suggestion
whose horrid image makes my heart knock at my ribs? (2)

The character of Macbeth will be explored later, but it is interesting to note how both Marowitz
and Schechner begin their plays by showing the importance of the Witch characters. Even though
Marowitz mentions "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth" at the beginning, he repeats the
entire scene in its proper place later in the play. Both authors leave a place to go with the Witches,
despite starting off with them being so controlling of Macbeth. The importance of the Witches
starts big and grows to the point until Macbeth can no longer handle it, and his death ends the
plays.

The influence of the Witches does not begin and end with Macbeth, however. In a macbeth, Lady
Macbeth has full knowledge of their powers and could even be said to be a Witch herself, perhaps
the missing Hecate. Lady Macbeth begins the play by reciting a portion of one of the Witches'
speeches, and later when she sees the Witches, she recites a portion of Hecate's speech:

Beldams,
Saucy and over-bold? How did you dare
To trade and traffick with Macbeth
In riddles and affairs of death,
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never called to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?
Thou shalt make amends: now get you gone. (91)

Lady Macbeth is full of the same poison that resides within the Witches, and she spreads it onto
Macbeth. She is as close to Macbeth as the Witches are and has as much power as they do when
they say their prophecies to him. She encourages him to follow his fate, and also helps prop him
up on a pedestal to help him believe that he is rightfully the Thane of Cawdor. The Lady Macbeth
of a macbeth is more aggressive than her counterpart in Makbeth. Lady Makbeth is more subtle in
her ways and lacks the direct connection to the Dark Powers like Lady Macbeth has. Lady
Makbeth matches Shakespeare's character in her quiet ways of supporting her husband and
assisting in the planning of the various plots:
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. ...You would be great. You are
not without ambition, but without the others that should attend it. Come, let me pour my spirits in
this ear. Let me chastise with my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round which fate
and metaphysical aid seem to have thee crowned with. (5)
Here is that same scene from a macbeth<:

Pour the sweet milk of concord into Hell

Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.

Thou wouldst be great

Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. (57)

The above speech is not spoken by Lady Macbeth, but one of the Macbeths. As mentioned before,
in a macbeth, there are three Macbeths, and their roles in the play behave like a mini-collage of
the original play. Lines are taken from Lady Macbeth, parts ofMacbeth's speeches are broken up
into three parts, and they also behave as a chorus for various other parts. Marowitz wanted first to
echo the triad of the Witches with another triad, but at the same time, the three Macbeths expand
and clarify an idea that Marowitz presents in his introduction. He says that "the tragedy of
Macbeth lies not in his fate, but in his state." (9) The three Macbeths transform a rather simplistic
officer into someone who is not stable and confused with all the advice he is hearing around him.
Lady Macbeth's words come to Macbeth through the other two Macbeths, so we not only hear her
words, but we hear how Macbeth is hearing them in his head. It adds more confusion to the
character ofMacbeth, because in addition to struggling with his deeds and the prophecy of the
Witches, he has to sift through all the messages he is receiving from within himself. As he says:
Stars, hide your fires,
Let not light see my black and deep desires,
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (57)

While this Macbeth struggles with being possessed by his wife and the breaking down of his
character, Makbeth is possessed by the Dark Powers. Schechner seems to be less concerned with
the internal struggle of the character, and more with how the evil poison is washing through his
body. Schechner quotes word-for-word the beginning of Makbeth's letter to Lady Makbeth, and it
is one of the few unaltered paragraphs in the play. I quote it here to look at it more carefully:

They met me in the day of success; and I have learned they have more in them than mortal
knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air into
which they vanished. While I stood rapt in the wonder of it, a messenger came from the King who
hailed me Thane of Cawdor. (4)

The beginning of this letter may or may not be a strong influence on some of Schechner's other
ideas, but it is an example of how he ties in some of his theoretical work into practice. In
Schechner's book Environmental Theatre, he devotes an entire chapter on the concept of the
shaman: Schechner says: [a] shaman is in his way a public prostitute- a man who stands for
someone, or something, else. He interjects the fantasies projected onto him. This introjection is so
complete that the shaman often believes he is the god, demon, person, animal, or thing he is
possessed by.

Makbeth's initial meeting with the Dark Powers represents his calling to duty, which may be why
Makbeth's reaction afterwards is one of being stunned and shocked. He has just gazed upon some
higher spirit or god who has, "more in them than mortal knowledge" (4). The Darker Powers have
given him a purpose and goal in life: to be the Thane of Cawdor. Lady Makbeth recognizes this
shift in her husband when she says to him that he has been crowned by "fate and metaphysical
aid" (5). Shamans see the spiritual beings that the common folk can not see or choose to ignore.
This helps to explain why Makbeth sees Banquo's ghost during the banquet scenes, or sees the
apparitions produced by the Witches. This also helps us to understand why he can believe he is
theThane of Cawdor through the play. He may be hallucinating, but there is a higher power
working within him that helps him to see these things.

By using Shakespeare's text as a source and object to cut up and edit as they please, both
Marowitz and Schechner have become as diabolical as the Witches/Dark Powers in their plays.
They are not too kind with the text, putting it into different contexts, eliminating sections of it,
repeating themselves, and changing how the characters interact with another. Schechner wrote in
his introduction that he began his work with Macbeth under a single premise: "Shakespeare is not
so much the author of Macbeth as he is the provider of basic material out of which that production
was made" (v). Paring down the text to what the author's deem important allows them to bring out
different themes and ideas, and transforms it into something more magical. One wonders how
Shakespeare would react to the plays of a macbeth and Makbeth. Annoyed that someone decided
to destroy his dreams, or elated and flattered that someone saw in his stories something important
enough that they wanted to make it their own. I think he would be quite excited with how
Marowitz and Schechner took hold of Macbeth and transmutated it into a new entity.