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'''Nadendla Bhaskara Rao''' (born on [[23 June]] [[1935]] in [[ Guntur]]) was the [[chief minister]] of the [[India]]n state of [[Andhra Pradesh]] for a brief period in [[1983]]. He holds the dubious distinction of serving the shortest term as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh - 31 days.
{{this|Shakespeare's play}}


==Start==
{{Infobox Play
A lawyer by profession, he graduated from [[Osmania University]], [[Hyderabad (India)|Hyderabad]], he entered the AP state assembly in [[1978]]. He served as a Minister of state in [[Marri Chenna Reddy|Chenna Reddy's]] cabinet. He joined [[N. T. Rama Rao]] in [[1983]] and aided in the efforts of creating [[Telugu Desam Party]].
| name = Macbeth
| image = Macbeth and Banquo with the witches JHF.jpg|275px|
| caption = ''Macbeth and Banquo with the Witches'' by [[Johann Heinrich Füssli]]]]
| writer = [[William Shakespeare]]
| genre = Tragedy
| setting = Medieval Scotland and briefly, England
| subject = Ambition / regicide / moral disintegration
| premiere = Not known with certainty
| place = Not known with certainty
| orig_lang = {{English}}
| ibdb_id =
| iobdb_id =
}}


After NTR swept the assembly elections in 1983, Bhaskara Rao joined his ministry as Finance minister.
'''''Macbeth''''' is among the best-known of [[William Shakespeare]]'s [[Shakespeare's plays|plays]], and is his shortest [[Shakespearean tragedy|tragedy]], believed to have been written some time between 1603 and 1606. It is frequently performed at both amateur and professional levels, and has been adapted for [[opera]], [[film]], [[Literature|books]], [[Theatre|stage]] and [[Television|screen]]. Often regarded as [[Archetype|archetypal]], the play tells of the dangers of the [[megalomania|lust for power]] and the betrayal of friends. For the plot Shakespeare drew loosely on the historical account of King [[Macbeth of Scotland]] by [[Raphael Holinshed]] and that by the [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scottish]] philosopher [[Hector Boece]].<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/65/ma/Macbeth.html The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition]</ref> There are many superstitions centred on the belief the play is somehow "cursed", and some actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it instead as ''"[[The Scottish play]]"''.
==Date and text==
[[Image:FirstFolioMacbeth.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Facsimile of the first page of ''Macbeth'' from the ''[[First Folio]]'', published in 1623]]''Macbeth'' cannot be dated precisely owing to significant evidence of later revisions. Many scholars conjecture the likely date of composition to be between 1603 and 1606.<ref>Charles Boyce, ''Encyclopaedia of Shakespeare'', New York, Roundtable Press, 1990, p. 350.</ref><ref>A.R. Braunmuller, ed. ''Macbeth'' (CUP, 1997), 5-8.</ref> As the play seems to be aimed at celebrating [[James I of England|King James]]'s ancestors and the [[House of Stuart|Stuart]] accession to the throne in 1603 (James believed himself to be descended from [[Banquo]]),<ref>Braunmuller, ''Macbeth,'' pp. 2-3.</ref> they argue that the play is unlikely to have been composed earlier than 1603; and suggest that the parade of eight kings—which the witches show Macbeth in a vision in Act IV—is a compliment to [[James I of England|King James VI of Scotland]]. Other editors conjecture a more specific date of 1605-6, the principal reasons being possible allusions to the [[Gunpowder Plot]] and its ensuing trials. The Porter's speech (Act II, scene III, lines1-21), in particular, may contain allusions to the trial of the Jesuit [[Henry Garnet]] in spring, 1606; "equivocator" (line 8) may refer to Garnet's defence of "equivocation" [see: [[Doctrine of mental reservation]]], and "farmer" (4) to one of Garnet's aliases.<ref>Frank Kermode, "Macbeth," ''The Riverside Shakespeare'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974), p. 1308; for details on Garnet, see Perez Zagorin, "The Historical Significance of Lying and Dissimulation—Truth-Telling, Lying, and self-Deception," ''Social Research,'' Fall 1996.</ref> However, "farmer" is a common word, and the concept of "equivocation" was also the subject of a 1583 tract by [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]]'s chief councillor Lord Burghley, and of the 1584 Doctrine of Equivocation by the Spanish prelate [[Martin Azpilcueta]], which was disseminated across Europe and into England in the 1590s.<ref> Mark Anderson, ''Shakespeare By Another Name,'' 2005, pp. 402-403</ref>


==Short-lived CM==
Scholars also cite an entertainment seen by King James at [[Oxford]] in the summer of 1605 that featured three "[[sibyl]]s" like the weird sisters; Kermode surmises that Shakespeare could have heard about this and alluded to it with the weird sisters.<ref>Kermode, ''Riverside Shakespeare,'' p. 1308.</ref> However, A. R. Braunmuller in the New Cambridge edition finds the 1605-6 arguments inconclusive, and argues only for an earliest date of 1603.<ref>Braunmuller, ''Macbeth,'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997;
After one and half years of the TDP’s rule the main opposition party, [[Indian National Congress|Congress (I)]] pulled a coup on the NTR government in August 1984. Congress (I) gave support to Bhaskara Rao's group within TDP at a time when NTR was away in the US to undergo a heart surgery. Since Congress was in power at the center and their nominee occupied the AP Governor's post, Bhaskara Rao became CM of Andhra Pradesh.
pp. 5-8.</ref> The play is not considered to have been written any later than 1607, since, as Kermode notes, there are "fairly clear allusions to the play in 1607."<ref>Kermode, ''Riverside Shakespeare,'' p. 1308.</ref> The earliest account of a performance of the play is April 1611, when [[Simon Forman]] recorded seeing it at the [[Globe Theatre]].<ref>If, that is, the Forman document is genuine; see the entry on [[Simon Forman]] for the question of the authenticity of the ''Book of Plays.''</ref>


At a national level, seventeen opposition parties, including the CPI, CPI(M), BJP and the Janata criticized Congress (I}'s move and launched a ‘Save democracy movement’, leading to massive anti-Congress and anti-Centre protest against the dismissal of the TDP government. NTR returned back from US, wore black clothes and launched a state-wide ''yathra'' to protest the dismissal of his government. He called it a ''dharma yuddham'' (a war for justice), a war against the authoritarian and autocratic rule at the Centre, for restoration of democracy and safeguarding the Constitution. The central government, fearing damage to party's image with general election less than a year away, recalled the governor and reinstalled NTR as CM - the only instance in political history of India when a dismissed CM was reinstated.
''Macbeth'' was first printed in the [[First Folio]] of 1623 and the Folio is the only source for the text. The text that survives had been plainly altered by later hands. Most notable is the inclusion of two songs from [[Thomas Middleton]]'s play ''[[The Witch]]'' (1615); Middleton is conjectured to have inserted an extra scene involving [[Weird Sisters|the witches]] and [[Hecate#Hecate in literature|Hecate]], for these scenes had proven highly popular with audiences. These revisions, which since the Clarendon edition of 1869 have been assumed to include all of Act III, scene v, and a portion of Act IV, scene I, are often indicated in modern texts.<ref>Brooke, Nicholas, ed. ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998:57</ref> On this basis, many scholars reject all three of the interludes with the goddess [[Hecate]] as inauthentic. Even with the Hecate material, the play is conspicuously short, and so the Folio text may derive from a prompt book that had been substantially cut for performance, or an adapter cut the text himself.


Bhaskara Rao left TDP and joined Congress (I) along with his supporters. His reign as AP CM lasted 31 days.
==Characters==
[[Image:Macbeth3.jpg|thumb||220px|Scene from ''Macbeth'', depicting the witches' conjuring of an apparition in Act IV, Scene I. Painting by [[William Rimmer]]]]
*'''[[Duncan I of Scotland|Duncan]]''' – King of Scotland
**'''[[Malcolm III of Scotland|Malcolm]]''' – Duncan's elder son
**'''[[Donald III of Scotland|Donalbain]]''' – Duncan's younger son
*'''[[Macbeth (character)|Macbeth]]''' – A general in the army of King Duncan. [[Thegn|Thane]] of Cawdor,[[Thegn|Thane]] of Glamis, King of Scots
**'''[[Lady Macbeth]]''' – Macbeth's wife
*'''[[Banquo]]''' – Macbeth's friend and a general in the army of King Duncan
**'''[[Fleance]]''' – The son of Banquo
*'''[[Macduff (thane)|Macduff]]''' – The [[Thegn|Thane]] of [[Fife]]
**'''[[Lady Macduff]]''' – Macduff's wife
** Macduff's Son
*'''Ross''' – A Scottish lord
*'''Lennox''' – A Scottish lord
*'''Angus''' – A Scottish lord
*'''Mentieth''' – A Scottish lord
*'''Caithness''' – A Scottish lord
*'''Siward''' – Earl of Northumberland, General of the English forces
**'''Young Siward''' – The son of Siward
*'''Seyton''' – A servant and attendant
*'''Hecate''' – Chief witch/Goddess of Witchcraft
*'''[[Three Witches]]'''
*'''Three Murderers'''
*'''Porter (or Messenger)'''
*'''English Doctor'''
*'''Scottish Doctor'''


==Synopsis==
==Post CM days==
After a political hiatus, Bhaskara Rao was elected to the 12<sup>th</sup> [[Lok Sabha]] in [[1998]] from [[Khammam]] Constituency. To date, he remains active in state politics
The play opens among thunder and lightning, with the [[Three Witches]] deciding that their next meeting shall be with Macbeth. In the following scene, a wounded sergeant reports to King [[Duncan I of Scotland|Duncan]] of [[Scotland]] that his generals, Macbeth (who is the [[thegn|Thane]] of [[Glamis]]) and [[Banquo]], have just defeated the allied forces of [[Norway]] and [[Ireland]], led by the rebel Macdonwald. Macbeth, the King's kinsman, is praised for his bravery and fighting prowess.

The scene changes. Macbeth and Banquo enter into conversation, remarking on the weather and their victory ("So foul and fair a day I have not seen"). While they wander into a heath, the three Witches, who have been waiting, greet them with prophecies. Even though it is Banquo who first challenges them, they address Macbeth. The first hails Macbeth as "''[[Thegn|Thane]] of [[Glamis]]''", the second as "''Thane of [[Cawdor]]''", and the third proclaims that he shall "''be King hereafter''". Macbeth appears stunned into silence; so again Banquo challenges them. The Witches inform Banquo he shall father a line of kings, though he himself will not be one. While the two men wonder at these pronouncements, the Witches vanish, and another Thane, [[Ross (area)|Ross]], a messenger from the King, soon arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly bestowed title&mdash;Thane of Cawdor. The first prophecy is thus fulfilled. Immediately, Macbeth begins to harbour ambitions of becoming king.

Macbeth writes to his wife about the Witches' prophecies. When Duncan decides to stay at the Macbeths' castle at [[Inverness]], [[Lady Macbeth (Shakespeare)|Lady Macbeth]] hatches a plan to murder him and secure the throne for her husband. Although Macbeth raises concerns about the [[regicide]], Lady Macbeth eventually persuades him, by challenging his manhood, to follow her plan.

On the night of the visit Macbeth kills Duncan. The deed is not seen by the audience, but it leaves Macbeth so shaken that Lady Macbeth has to take charge. In accordance with her plan, she frames Duncan's sleeping servants for the murder by planting bloody daggers on them. Early the next morning, Lennox, a Scottish nobleman, and [[Macduff (thane)|Macduff]], the loyal Thane of [[Fife]], arrive.<ref>See ''[[On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth]]''.</ref> The drunken porter opens the gate and Macbeth leads them to the king's chamber, where Macduff discovers Duncan's corpse. In a feigned fit of anger, Macbeth murders the guards before they can protest their innocence. Macduff is immediately suspicious of Macbeth but does not reveal his suspicions publicly. Fearing for their lives, Duncan's sons flee, [[Malcolm III of Scotland|Malcolm]] to [[England]] and his brother [[Donald III of Scotland|Donalbain]] to [[Ireland]]. The rightful heirs' flight makes them suspects and Macbeth assumes the throne as the new [[King of Scotland]] as a kinsman to the dead king.

[[Image:Banquo.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Macbeth seeing the Ghost of Banquo by [[Théodore Chassériau]].]]
Despite his success, Macbeth remains uneasy about the prophecy that Banquo would be the progenitor of kings. So Macbeth invites Banquo to a royal [[banquet]] and discovers that Banquo and his young son, [[Fleance]], will be riding out that night. He hires two men to kill Banquo and Fleance. (A third murderer appears mysteriously in the park before the murder). While the assassins murder Banquo, Fleance escapes. At the banquet Banquo's [[ghost]] enters and sits in Macbeth's place. Only Macbeth can see the ghost; the rest panic at the sight of Macbeth raging at an empty chair, until a desperate Lady Macbeth orders them to leave.

Macbeth, disturbed, goes to the Witches once more. They conjure up three spirits with three further warnings and prophecies, which tell him to "''beware Macduff''", but also that "''none of woman born shall harm Macbeth''" and he will "''never vanquish'd be until Great [[Birnam, Perth and Kinross|Birnam]] Wood to high [[Dunsinane Hill]] shall come against him''". Since Macduff is in exile in England (he meets with Malcolm and together they begin to raise an army) Macbeth assumes that he is safe; so he puts to death everyone in Macduff's castle, including [[Lady Macduff|Macduff's wife]] and their young children.

Lady Macbeth becomes racked with guilt from the crimes she and her husband have committed. In a famous scene she sleepwalks and tries to wash imaginary bloodstains from her hands, all the while speaking of the terrible things she knows.[[Image:Johann Heinrich Füssli 030.jpg|thumb|200px|left|''Lady Macbeth sleepwalking'' by [[Johann Heinrich Füssli]].]]

In England Malcolm and Macduff are informed by Ross that "your castle is suprised, your wives and babes savagely slaughtered." in which they reply "within my sword's length set him.","Macbeth is ripe for shaking" and then plan the battle for Scotland. Macbeth, now identified as a tyrant, sees many of his thanes defecting. Malcolm leads an army, along with Macduff and Englishmen [[Sigurd the Dane|Siward]] (the Elder), the Earl of [[Northumberland]], against Dunsinane Castle. While encamped in [[Birnam, Perth and Kinross|Birnam]] Wood, the soldiers are ordered to cut down and carry tree limbs to camouflage their numbers, thus fulfilling the Witches' third prophecy. Meanwhile Macbeth delivers the famous [[soliloquy]] ("''[[Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow (quotation)|Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow]]''") upon his learning of Lady Macbeth's death (the cause is undisclosed, and it is assumed by some that she committed [[suicide]], as Malcolm's final reference to her reveals "'tis thought, by self and violent hands / took off her life").

A battle ensues, culminating in the slaying of the young Siward and Macduff's confrontation with Macbeth. Macbeth boasts that he has no reason to fear Macduff, for he cannot be killed by any man born of woman. Macduff declares that he was ''"from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd"'' (i.e., born by [[Caesarean section]])—and was therefore [[Quibble (plot device)|not "''of woman born''"]]. Macbeth realizes, too late, the Witches have misled him. They fight, and Macduff beheads Macbeth off stage, and thereby fulfils the last of the prophecies.

Although Malcolm is placed on the throne and not Fleance, the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo, "''Thou shalt [be]get kings''", was known to the audience of Shakespeare's time to be true, for [[James I of England]] was supposedly a descendant of Banquo.

==Themes and motifs==
{{Original research|date=September 2007}}
''Macbeth'' is an anomaly among Shakespeare's tragedies in certain critical ways. It is short: more than a thousand lines shorter than ''[[Othello]]'' and ''[[King Lear]]'', and only slightly more than half as long as ''[[Hamlet]]''. This brevity has suggested to many critics that the received version is based on a heavily cut source, perhaps a prompt-book for a particular performance. That brevity has also been connected to other unusual features: the fast pace of the first act, which has seemed to be "stripped for action"; the comparative flatness of the characters other than Macbeth; the oddness of Macbeth himself compared with other Shakespearean tragic heroes.

===Macbeth as a tragedy of character===
At least since the days of [[Alexander Pope]] and [[Samuel Johnson]], analysis of the play has centred on the question of Macbeth's ambition, commonly seen as so dominant a trait that it defines the character. Johnson asserted that Macbeth, though esteemed for his military bravery, is wholly reviled. This opinion recurs in critical literature. Like Richard III, but without that character's perversely appealing exuberance, Macbeth wades through blood until his inevitable fall. As Kenneth Muir writes, "Macbeth has not a predisposition to murder; he has merely an inordinate ambition that makes murder itself seem to be a lesser evil than failure to achieve the crown." Some critics, such as E. E. Stoll, explain this characterisation as a holdover from Senecan or medieval tradition. Shakespeare's audience, in this view, expected villains to be wholly bad, and Senecan style, far from prohibiting a villainous protagonist, all but demanded it.

Yet for other critics, it has not been so easy to resolve the question of Macbeth's motivation. [[Robert Bridges]], for instance, perceived a paradox: a character able to express such convincing horror before Duncan's murder would likely be incapable of committing the crime. For many critics, Macbeth's motivations in the first act appear vague and insufficient. [[John Dover Wilson]] hypothesised that Shakespeare's original text had an extra scene or scenes in which husband and wife discussed their plans. This interpretation is not fully provable; however, the motivating role of ambition for Macbeth is universally recognised. The evil actions motivated by his ambition seem to trap him in a cycle of increasing evil, as Macbeth himself recognises: "I am in blood; stepp'd insofar that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as to go o'er."

===Macbeth as a tragedy of moral order===
The disastrous consequences of Macbeth's ambition are not limited to him, of course. Almost from the moment of the murder, the play depicts Scotland as a land shaken by inversions of the natural order. Shakespeare may have intended a reference to the [[great chain of being]], although the play's images of disorder are mostly not specific enough to support detailed intellectual readings. He may also have intended an elaborate compliment to James's belief in the [[divine right of kings]], although this hypothesis, outlined at greatest length by Henry N. Paul, is not universally accepted. As in ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'', though, perturbations in the political sphere are echoed and even amplified by events in the material world. Among the most frequently depicted of the inversions of the natural order is sleep. Macbeth's announcement that he has "murdered sleep" is figuratively mirrored in Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking.

Macbeth's generally accepted indebtedness to medieval tragedy is often seen as particularly significant in the play's treatment of moral order. Glynne Wickham connects the play, through the Porter, to a [[mystery play]] on the [[harrowing of hell]]. Howard Felperin argues that the play has a more complex attitude toward "orthodox Christian tragedy" than is often admitted; he sees a kinship between the play and the [[Herod|tyrant plays]] within the medieval liturgical drama.

The theme of androgyny is often seen as a special aspect of the theme of disorder. Inversion of normative gender roles is most famously associated with the witches and with Lady Macbeth as she appears in the first act. Whatever Shakespeare's degree of sympathy with such inversions, the play ends with a fairly thorough return to normative gender values. Some [[Feminist literary criticism|feminist]] [[Psychoanalytic literary criticism|psychoanalytic]] critics, such as Janet Adelman, have connected the play's treatment of gender roles to its larger theme of inverted natural order. In this light, Macbeth is punished for his violation of the moral order by being removed from the bicycles of nature (which are figured as female); nature itself (as embodied in the movement of Birnam Wood) is part of the restoration of moral order.

===Macbeth as a poetic tragedy===
Critics in the early twentieth century reacted against what they saw as an excessive dependence on the study of character in criticism of the play. This dependence, though most closely associated with [[Andrew Cecil Bradley]], is evident as early as the time of [[Mary Cowden Clarke]], who offered precise, if fanciful, accounts of the predramatic lives of Shakespeare's female leads. She suggested, for instance, that the child Lady Macbeth refers to in the first act died during a foolish military action.

==Superstition and "the Scottish play"==
{{main|The Scottish play}}
While many today would simply chalk up any misfortune surrounding a production to [[coincidence]], actors and other theatre people often consider it bad luck to mention ''Macbeth'' by name while inside a theatre, and usually refer to it [[superstition|superstitiously]] as ''[[The Scottish play|The Scottish Play]],'' or "MacBee", or when referencing the character rather than the play, "Mr. and Mrs. M", or "The Scottish King".

This is because Shakespeare is said to have used the spells of real witches in his text, purportedly angering the witches and causing them to curse the play. Thus, to say the name of the play inside a theatre is believed to doom the production to failure, and perhaps cause physical injury or death to cast members. A large mythology has built up surrounding this superstition, with countless stories of accidents, misfortunes and even deaths, all mysteriously taking place during runs of ''Macbeth'' (or by actors who had uttered the name).<ref>[http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A78882 The Austin Chronicle: Arts: The Curse of the Play<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

An alternative explanation for the superstition is that struggling theatres or companies would often put on this popular 'blockbuster' in an effort to save their flagging fortunes. However, it is a tall order for any single production to reverse a long-running trend of poor business. Therefore, the last play performed before a theatre shut down was often ''Macbeth'', and thus the growth of the idea that it was an 'unlucky' play.{{Fact|date=September 2007}}

Another explanation for this superstition is that theatre companies may have used Macbeth as a back-up play if they were to lose an actor and were not able to perform the production originally planned for the performance. This is because this play requires fewer actors (when doubling of characters for actors occurs) and has the least amount of text for the actors to memorize. "Macbeth" may have been the play that kept in theatre companies' back pockets, just in case some bad luck were to occur prior to any planning of a performance.

Several methods exist to dispel the curse, depending on the actor. One, attributed to [[Michael York (actor)|Michael York]], is to immediately leave the building the stage is in with the person who uttered the name, walk around it three times, spit over their left shoulders, say an obscenity then wait to be invited back into the building.<ref>''Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, Volume 6'' by [[J. Michael Straczynski]], Synthetic Labs Publishing (2006)</ref> Another popular "ritual" is to leave the room, knock three times, be invited in, and then quote a line from [[Hamlet]]. Yet another is to recite one of Shylock's monologues from [[The Merchant of Venice]].{{Fact|date=February 2008}}

==Performance history==
===Shakespeare's day===
Apart from the one mentioned in the Forman document, there are no performances known with certainty in Shakespeare's era. Because of its Scottish theme, the play is sometimes said to have been written for, and perhaps debuted for, King James; however, no external evidence supports this hypothesis. The play's brevity and certain aspects of its staging (for instance, the large proportion of night-time scenes and the unusually large number of off-stage sounds) have been taken as suggesting that the text now extant was revised for production indoors, perhaps at the [[Blackfriars Theatre]], which the King's Men acquired in 1608.<ref>For the date of acquisition, see, for instance, [[Joseph Quincy Adams|Adams, J. Q.]], ''Shakespearean Playhouses'', Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917: 224; Bentley, G. E. ''The Jacobean and Caroline Stage'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941: 6.13-17; Chambers, E. K., ''The Elizabethan Stage'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923: 2.498. For ''Macbeth'' as an indoor play, see, for instance Bald, R.C., "Macbeth and the Short Plays," ''Review of English Studies'' 4 (1928): 430; Shirley, Frances, ''Shakespeare's Use of Off-stage Sounds'', Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963: 168-89.</ref>

===Restoration and 18th century===
In the [[English Restoration|Restoration]], Sir [[William Davenant]] produced a spectacular "operatic" adaptation of ''Macbeth,'' "with all the singing and dancing in it" and special effects like "flyings for the witches" ([[John Downes (17th-century prompter)|John Downes]], ''Roscius Anglicanus,'' 1708). Davenant's revision also enhanced the role of Lady Macduff, making her a thematic foil to Lady Macbeth. In an April 19, 1667 entry in his Diary, [[Samuel Pepys]] called Davenant's ''MacBeth'' "one of the best plays for a stage, and variety of dancing and music, that ever I saw." The Davenant version held the stage until the middle of the next century. It was this version that the famous Macbeths of the early eighteenth century, such as [[James Quin]], employed.

[[Charles Macklin]], not otherwise recalled as a great Macbeth, is remembered for performances at the [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] in 1773 at which riots broke out, related to Macklin's rivalries with Garrick and [[William 'Gentleman' Smith|William Smith]]. Macklin performed in Scottish dress, reversing an earlier tendency to dress Macbeth as an English brigadier; he also removed Garrick's death speech and further trimmed Lady Macduff's role. The performance received generally respectful reviews, although [[George Steevens]] remarked on the inappropriateness of Macklin (then in his eighties) for the role.

After Garrick, the most celebrated Macbeth of the eighteenth century was [[John Philip Kemble]]; he performed the role most famously with his sister, [[Sarah Siddons]], whose Lady Macbeth was widely regarded as unsurpassable. Kemble continued the trends toward realistic costume and to Shakespeare's language that had marked Macklin's production; [[Walter Scott]] reports that he experimented continually with the Scottish dress of the play. Response to Kemble's interpretation was divided; however, Siddons was unanimously praised. Her performance of the "sleepwalking" scene in the fifth act was especially noted; [[Leigh Hunt]] called it "sublime." The Kemble-Siddons performances were the first widely influential productions in which Lady Macbeth's villainy was presented as deeper and more powerful than Macbeth's. It was also the first in which Banquo's ghost did not appear on stage.

Kemble's Macbeth struck some critics as too mannered and polite for Shakespeare's text. His successor as the leading actor of London, [[Edmund Kean]], was more often criticised for emotional excess, particularly in the fifth act. Kean's Macbeth was not universally admired; [[William Hazlitt]], for instance, complained that Kean's Macbeth was too like his [[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]. As he did in other roles, Kean exploited his athleticism as a key component of Macbeth's mental collapse. He reversed Kemble's emphasis on Macbeth as noble, instead presenting him as a ruthless politician who collapses under the weight of guilt and fear. Kean, however, did nothing to halt the trend toward extravagance in scene and costume.

===Nineteenth century===
The Macbeth of the next predominant London actor, [[William Charles Macready]], provoked responses at least as mixed as those given Kean. Macready debuted in the role in 1820 at [[Covent Garden]]. As Hazlitt noted, Macready's reading of the character was purely psychological; the witches lost all supernatural power, and Macbeth's downfall arose purely from the conflicts in Macbeth's character. Macready's most famous Lady Macbeth was [[Helena Faucit]], who debuted dismally in the role while still in her mid-20s, but who later achieved acclaim in the role for an interpretation that, unlike Siddons', accorded with contemporary notions of female decorum. After Macready "retired" to America, he continued to perform in the role; in 1849, he was involved in a rivalry with American actor [[Edwin Forrest]], whose partisans hissed Macready at [[Astor Place (Manhattan)|Astor Place]], leading to what is commonly called the [[Astor Place Riot]].

[[Image:Charles Kean as Macbeth 1858.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Charles Kean]] and his wife as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, in costumes aiming to be historically accurate (1858).]]
The two most prominent Macbeths of mid-century, [[Samuel Phelps]] and [[Charles Kean]], were both received with critical ambivalence and popular success. Both are famous less for their interpretation of character than for certain aspects of staging. At [[Sadler's Wells Theatre]], Phelps brought back nearly all of Shakespeare's original text. He brought back the first half of the Porter scene, which had been ignored by directors since D'Avenant; the second remained cut because of its ribaldry. He abandoned Irving's music{{Clarifyme|date=August 2008}} and reduced the witches to their role in the folio. Just as significantly, he returned to the folio treatment of Macbeth's death. Not all of these decisions succeeded in the Victorian context, and Phelps experimented with various combinations of Shakespeare and D'Avenant in his more than a dozen productions between 1844 and 1861. His most successful Lady Macbeth was [[Isabella Glyn]], whose commanding presence reminded some critics of Siddons.

The outstanding feature of Kean's productions at the [[Princess's Theatre, London|Princess's Theatre]] after 1850 was their accuracy of costume. Kean achieved his greatest success in modern [[melodrama]], and he was widely viewed as not prepossessing enough for the greatest Elizabethan roles. Audiences did not mind, however; one 1853 production ran for twenty weeks. Presumably part of the draw was Kean's famous attention to historical accuracy; in his productions, as [[Allardyce Nicoll]] notes, "even the botany was historically correct."

[[Henry Irving]]'s first attempt at the role, at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London]] in 1875, was a failure. Under the production of [[Sidney Frances Bateman]], and starring alongside [[Kate Josephine Bateman]], Irving may have been affected by the recent death of his manager [[Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman]]. Although the production lasted eighty performances, his Macbeth was judged inferior to his Hamlet. His next essay, opposite [[Ellen Terry]] at the Lyceum in 1888, fared better, playing for 150 performances.<ref>[http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/collections/object.php?object_id=2008&back=%2Fguided_tours%2Fdrama_tour%2F19th_century%2Fmanagers_irving.php%3F "Henry Irving as Macbeth",] PeoplePlay UK website</ref> It had [[incidental music]] by [[Arthur Sullivan]].<ref>[http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/other_sullivan/macbeth/index.html Information about Sullivan's incidental music to ''Macbeth'' in 1888,] The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive</ref> Friends such as [[Bram Stoker]] defended his "psychological" reading, based on the supposition that Macbeth had dreamed of killing Duncan before the start of the play. His detractors, among them [[Henry James]], deplored his somewhat arbitrary word changes ("would have" for "should have" in the speech at Lady Macbeth's death) and his "neurasthenic" approach to the character.{{Fact|date=August 2008}}

===Twentieth century to present===
[[Barry Vincent Jackson]] staged an influential modern-dress production with the [[Birmingham Repertory Theatre|Birmingham Repertory]] in 1928; the production reached London, playing at the [[Royal Court Theatre]]. It received mixed reviews; Eric Maturin was judged an inadequate Macbeth, though [[Mary Merrall]]'s vampish Lady was reviewed favourably. Though [[The Times]] judged it a "miserable failure," the production did much to overturn the tendency to scenic and antiquarian excess that had peaked with Charles Kean.

[[Image:Negro unit Macbeth.jpg|left|300px|thumb|The [[Federal Theatre Project]] Negro Unit's production of ''Macbeth'', 1935]]
Among the most publicised productions of the twentieth century was mounted by the [[Federal Theater Project]] at the [[Lafayette Theatre (Harlem)|Lafayette Theatre]] in Harlem from [[14 April]] to [[20 June]] [[1936]]. [[Orson Welles]], in his first stage production, directed Jack Carter and Edna Thomas, with [[Canada Lee]] playing Banquo, in an all [[African American]] production. Welles set the play in post-colonial [[Haiti]], and his direction emphasised spectacle and suspense: his dozens of "African" drums recalled Davenant's chorus of witches.

[[Laurence Olivier]] played Malcolm in the 1929 production and Macbeth in 1937 at the [[Old Vic Theatre]] in a production that saw the [[Old Vic Theatre|Vic's]] artistic director [[Lilian Baylis]] pass away the night before it opened. [[Laurence Olivier|Olivier's]] makeup was so thick and stylised for that production that [[Vivien Leigh]] was quoted as saying "You hear Macbeth's first line, then Larry's makeup comes on, then Banquo comes on, then Larry comes on".<ref>Robert Tanitch, Olivier, Abbeville Press (1985)</ref> [[Laurence Olivier|Olivier]] later starred in what is among the most famous twentieth-century productions, by [[Glen Byam Shaw]] at [[Stratford-upon-Avon]] in 1955. [[Vivien Leigh]] played Lady Macbeth. The supporting cast, which [[Harold Hobson]] denigrated, included many actors who went on to successful Shakespearean careers: [[Ian Holm]] played Donalbain, [[Keith Michell]] was Macduff, and [[Patrick Wymark]] the Porter. Olivier was the key to success. The intensity of his performance, particularly in the conversation with the murderers and in confronting Banquo's ghost, seemed to many reviewers to recall Edmund Kean. Plans for a film version faltered after the box-office failure of Olivier's ''[[Richard III (1955 film)|Richard III]]''. It was of this performance that [[Kenneth Tynan]] asserted flatly that "no one has ever succeeded as Macbeth"—until Olivier.

[[Laurence Olivier|Olivier's]] co-star in his 1937 [[Old Vic Theatre]] production, [[Judith Anderson]], had an equally triumphant association with the play. She played [[Lady Macbeth]] on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] opposite [[Maurice Evans (actor)|Maurice Evans]] in a production directed by [[Margaret Webster]] that ran for 131 performances in 1941, the longest run of the play in Broadway history. [[Judith Anderson|Anderson]] and [[Maurice Evans (actor)|Evans]] performed the play on television twice, in 1954 and 1962, with Maurice Evans winning an [[Emmy Award]] the 1962 production and Anderson winning the award for both presentations.

One of the most notable twentieth-century productions is that of [[Trevor Nunn]] for the [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] in 1976. Nunn had directed [[Nicol Williamson]] and [[Helen Mirren]] in the play two years earlier, but that production had largely failed to impress. In 1976, Nunn produced the play with a minimalist set at [[The Other Place (theatre)|The Other Place]]; this small, nearly round stage focused attention on the psychological dynamics of the characters. Both [[Ian McKellen]] in the title role and [[Judi Dench]] as Lady Macbeth received exceptionally favourable reviews. Dench won the 1997 [[The Society of London Theatre|SWET]] Best Actress award for her performance and in 2004, members of the RSC voted her performance the greatest by an actress in the history of the company.

Nunn's production transferred to London in 1977 and was later filmed for television. It was to overshadow [[Peter Hall (theatre director)|Peter Hall]]'s 1978 production with [[Albert Finney]] as Macbeth and [[Dorothy Tutin]] as Lady Macbeth. But the most infamous recent ''Macbeth'' was staged at the Old Vic in 1980. [[Peter O'Toole]] and [[Frances Tomelty]] took the leads in a production (by Bryan Forbes) that was publicly disowned by [[Timothy West]], artistic director of the theatre, before opening night, despite being a sellout because of its notoriety. As critic [[Jack Tinker]] noted in the [[Daily Mail]]: "The performance is not so much downright bad as heroically ludicrous."<ref>''London Stage in the 20th Century'' by [[Robert Tanitch]], Haus Publishing (2007) ISBN 9781904950745</ref>

On the stage, [[Lady Macbeth (Shakespeare)|Lady Macbeth]] is considered one of the more "commanding and challenging" roles in Shakespeare's work.<ref>Brown, Langdon. ''Shakespeare around the Globe: A Guide to Notable Postwar Revivals''. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986: 355.</ref> Other actresses who have succeeded in the role include [[Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies]], [[Glenda Jackson]], and [[Jane Lapotaire]].

A performance was staged in the real Macbeth's home of Moray, produced by the National Theatre of Scotland to take place at Elgin Cathedral. Professional actors, dancers, musicians, school children, and a community cast from the Moray area all took part in what was an important event in the Highland Year of Culture, 2007.

In the same year there was general consent among critics that Rupert Goold's production for the Chichester Festival 2007, starring [[Patrick Stewart]] and [[Kate Fleetwood]], rivalled Trevor Nunn's acclaimed 1976 RSC production. And when it transferred to the [[Gielgud Theatre]] in London, [[Charles Spencer]] reviewing for the [[Daily Telegraph]] pronounced it the best Macbeth he had ever seen [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/09/28/btmacbeth128.xml]. At the [[Evening Standard Awards|Evening Standard Theatre Awards]] 2007 the production won both the Best Actor award for Stewart, and the Best Director award for Goold.[http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23423447-details/Winning+performances+on+the+West+End+stage/article.do]. The same production opened in the US at the [[Brooklyn Academy of Music]] in 2008, moving to Broadway (Lyceum Theatre) after a sold-out run.

==Film versions==
{{main|Macbeth on screen}}
[[Image:Witches 2006macbeth.JPG|thumb|right|350px|The Three Witches as portrayed in the 2006 film ''[[Macbeth (2006 film)|Macbeth]]''.]]
[[William Shakespeare]]'s '''[[Macbeth]]''' has been [[Shakespeare on screen|screened]] numerous times featuring many of the biggest names from stage, film and television.

==Adaptations and cultural references==

===Literary versions===
*''[[MacBird]]'', a 1966 counterculture drama by [[Barbara Garson]] featuring US President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] as Macbeth
*''[[Macbett]]'' — 1972 play by [[Eugène Ionesco]] which satirises the original.
*''[[Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (story)|Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District]]'', short story by [[Nikolai Leskov]] only loosely related to Shakespeare's play
*''Light Thickens'' — 1982 Inspector Alleyn mystery novel by [[Ngaio Marsh]] Concerns the five weeks of rehearsal for a London production of the play.
*''Macbeth'' — 1988 Greek novel by [[Apostolos Doxiadis]]
*''[[Wyrd Sisters]]'' — 1988 novel by [[Terry Pratchett]], whose plot combines those of ''Macbeth'' and ''[[Hamlet]]''. One of many novels set in the [[Discworld]] fantasy world.
*''MacBeth'' — 1999 Finnish comic book, adapted by [[Petri Hannini]] and artwork by [[Petri Hiltunen]].
*''[[The Third Witch]]'' — 2001 novel by Rebecca Reisert, told from the point of view of one of the witches in the play.
*''La señora Macbeth'' 2004, by [[Griselda Gambaro]]. An Argentinian play, told from the point of view of Lady Macbeth and her arguing with the three witches that harass her during the victories and later death of her husband.

===Television versions (a selection)===
*''Macbeth'' — 1954 [[Hallmark Hall of Fame]] live adaptation of the famous stage production starring [[Maurice Evans (actor)|Maurice Evans]] and [[Judith Anderson]], with a mostly American supporting cast of stage and television actors, among them [[Richard Waring]].
*''Macbeth'' — 1960 television remake of the 1954 production, again produced for the ''Hallmark Hall of Fame'', and again starring Evans and Anderson, but this time featuring an all-British supporting cast, and filmed on location in [[England]] and [[Scotland]]. [[Ian Bannen]] and [[Jeremy Brett]] are also featured.
*''Play of The Month: Macbeth''; 1970 production, shown on the 20th September that year on [[BBC1]]. Starring [[Eric Porter]], [[Janet Suzman]], [[John Alderton]], [[Geoffrey Palmer]], [[John Thaw]] and [[Tony Caunter]].
*''Macbeth''— 1983 production produced for the [[BBC Shakespeare]] series shown on [[PBS]], this version starring [[Nicol Williamson]] and [[Jane Lapotaire]].
*''Macbeth'' — 1992 animation by Nikolai Serebryakov as a part of ''[[Shakespeare: The Animated Tales]]''
*''Macbeth'' — 1998 TV movie on UK [[Channel 4]], starring [[Sean Pertwee]] and set in an alternate present-day [[Scotland]], but with the original dialogue
*The [[BBC]]'s ''[[ShakespeaRe-Told]]'' series in 2005 included a present-day modern-language ''Macbeth'' set in a Glasgow restaurant starring [[James McAvoy]].

===Musical adaptations===
*The opera ''[[Macbeth (opera)|Macbeth]]'' (1847) by [[Giuseppe Verdi]]
*The opera ''[[Macbeth (Bloch)|Macbeth]]'' (1910) by [[Ernest Bloch]]
*The opera ''[[Macbeth (Sciarrino)|Macbeth]]'' (2002) by [[Salvatore Sciarrino]]
*''[[Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)|Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District]]'', an opera by [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] based on the short story by Nikolai Leskov
*''Macbeth'', one of [[Richard Strauss]]'s earliest [[tone poem]]s (1890)
*The album ''[[Macbeth (album)|Macbeth]]'' (1990) by [[Laibach (band)|Laibach]]
*The album ''[[Thane to the Throne]]'' (2000), a [[concept album]] by [[Jag Panzer]]
*The album ''[[Shakespeare's Macbeth — A Tragedy in Steel|A Tragedy in Steel]]'' (2002), a concept album by [[Rebellion (band)|Rebellion]].
*''Macbeth: the Contemporary Rock Opera'' (revised 2006) by Judy Stevens and Clarry Evans, first performed at the [[Queensland Performing Arts Centre]].
*''Umbatha'', merging the story with the history of [[Shaka Zulu]], incorporating [[Zulu]] tribal songs and dances. Written by [[Market Theatre#Selection of featured artists|Welcome Msomi]] and first performed in 1969. See [http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/DB/issues/97/10.01/ae.Umabatha.html UCLA news article].
*[[David Hobson (tenor)|David Hobson's]] rock opera - 1985
* From a Jack to a King by Bob Carlton 2007

==References==
{{reflist|2}}


==External links==
==External links==
* [http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/lok12/biodata/12ap40.htm N Bhaskara Rao - Biography from 12<sup>th</sup> Lok Sabha]
{{wikisourcepar|The Tragedy of Macbeth}}
* [http://www.odi.org.uk/Livelihoodoptions/papers/ReportDraft1.doc "Democratic Process and Electoral Politics in Andhra Pradesh" by K.C. Suri (2002)]
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/20/stories/2003012005590400.htm Bhaskara Rao regrets 'founding' TDP]
{{commonscat|Macbeth}}
* [http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayItems.asp?id=SEV20070412073516&eTitle=Focus&rLink=0 History of TDP by G. Vasu]

===Performances===
* [http://ahds.ac.uk/ahdscoll/docroot/shakespeare/performanceslist.do?playId=11017/ Performances and Photographs from London and Stratford performances of Macbeth 1960 - 2000] - From the Designing Shakespeare resource
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=883718043846080512&q=macbeth&total=4565&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 The Shakespeare Video Society edition (Google Video - 2 hours 12 mins)]
* [http://bardolatry.com/macbeth-on-film/ Macbeth on Film ]

===Audio Recording===
* [http://www.ejunto.com/macbeth.html Macbeth: Free Full-length Recording] on ejunto.com

===Text of Play===
* [http://clicknotes.com/macbeth/SceneTextIndex.html Macbeth Navigator] - searchable, annotated HTML version of ''Macbeth.''
* [http://william-shakespeare.classic-literature.co.uk/the-tragedie-of-macbeth/ Classic Literature Library] - HTML version of Macbeth.
* [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/2264 Project Gutenberg : Macbeth] - ASCII plain-text from [[Project Gutenberg]]
* [http://shakespearenet.net/macbeth/macbreak.htm shakespeareNet] - Act by Act summary of Macbeth
* [http://nfs.sparknotes.com/macbeth/ No Fear Shakespeare] - By Sparknotes - Original Text and a Modern Translation side-by-side
* [http://www.maximumedge.com/shakespeare/macbeth.htm Macbeth] - Searchable and scene-indexed version of ''Macbeth.''

===Commentary===
* [http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/ Sparknotes]
* [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-65.html CliffsNotes]
* [http://www.webenglishteacher.com/macbeth.html Lesson plans for Macbeth] at Web English Teacher
* [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20073 Shakespeare and the Uses of Power] by Steven Greenblatt
* [http://macbeth.publicliterature.org/ Macbeth Text-Based Game] - Full text of Macbeth with a Text-Based Game.
* [http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html The Complete Works of William Shakespeare] - Entire play in basic HTML.
* [http://www.thefinalclub.org/work-overview.php?work_id=7 TheFinalClub.org] - Entire play with Commentary that anyone can add to

{{Macbeth}}

{{Shakespeare}}


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[[Category:English Renaissance plays]]
[[Category:Scotland in fiction]]
[[Category:Shakespearean tragedies]]
[[Category:1603 plays]]
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Revision as of 09:57, 11 October 2008

Nadendla Bhaskara Rao (born on 23 June 1935 in Guntur) was the chief minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh for a brief period in 1983. He holds the dubious distinction of serving the shortest term as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh - 31 days.

Start

A lawyer by profession, he graduated from Osmania University, Hyderabad, he entered the AP state assembly in 1978. He served as a Minister of state in Chenna Reddy's cabinet. He joined N. T. Rama Rao in 1983 and aided in the efforts of creating Telugu Desam Party.

After NTR swept the assembly elections in 1983, Bhaskara Rao joined his ministry as Finance minister.

Short-lived CM

After one and half years of the TDP’s rule the main opposition party, Congress (I) pulled a coup on the NTR government in August 1984. Congress (I) gave support to Bhaskara Rao's group within TDP at a time when NTR was away in the US to undergo a heart surgery. Since Congress was in power at the center and their nominee occupied the AP Governor's post, Bhaskara Rao became CM of Andhra Pradesh.

At a national level, seventeen opposition parties, including the CPI, CPI(M), BJP and the Janata criticized Congress (I}'s move and launched a ‘Save democracy movement’, leading to massive anti-Congress and anti-Centre protest against the dismissal of the TDP government. NTR returned back from US, wore black clothes and launched a state-wide yathra to protest the dismissal of his government. He called it a dharma yuddham (a war for justice), a war against the authoritarian and autocratic rule at the Centre, for restoration of democracy and safeguarding the Constitution. The central government, fearing damage to party's image with general election less than a year away, recalled the governor and reinstalled NTR as CM - the only instance in political history of India when a dismissed CM was reinstated.

Bhaskara Rao left TDP and joined Congress (I) along with his supporters. His reign as AP CM lasted 31 days.

Post CM days

After a political hiatus, Bhaskara Rao was elected to the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998 from Khammam Constituency. To date, he remains active in state politics

External links

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