With the freshman class reading “Romeo and Juliet,” the sophomores reading “Macbeth” and the seniors reading “Hamlet,” it is apparent that Shakespeare’s plays are read in English classes throughout high school at Madison. Shakespeare’s writing will come to life on stage, as the Madison drama department  puts on the tragic story  “Macbeth” as their fall play November 9,10,11th.
When a plot is a tragedy that means the main character, in this case the play’s namesake Macbeth, meets his demise in the end due to their own tragic flaw or “hamartia.” Most of the characters in the play speak in iambic pentameter, which is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables similar to a heart beat.

“Macbeth’s hamartia is his ambition. He gets a prophecy at the beginning of the play that he will one day be king, but he doesn’t want to wait for it to happen. He wants to make it happen,” Drama teacher and Director Marshall Henderson said.

Macbeth’s desire to become king, combined with his wife’s encouragement, motivates him to murder King Duncan. The events that follow show the mental unraveling of both Macbeth’s.

In class, shakespeare has a reputation for being difficult to comprehend because of its unfamiliar wording and complicated meaning. However, despite its difficulty, the drama department is confident about its ability to produce a good play.

“I don’t believe that Shakespeare is difficult to produce because I don’t treat it like a chore,” Henderson said. “We look at it like any other play and I find that it doesn’t take them anymore than a day or two to get the hang of it.”

None of the play will be changed, including the sometimes difficult language used in Shakespeare’s plays. In fact, the drama department is trying to be as realistic with the material as possible.
“Some scripts try to modernize it, but we’re keeping the original text. During rehearsals we do text analysis,so we all know exactly what each line means, which is the most important thing when playing it onstage,” Props Master Max Jackson (’18), who stars as Macbeth, said.
Madison last did a Shakespeare play when they did ‘Romeo and Juliet’ four years ago. Since, the school has instead produced more contemporary plays, like ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and ‘Rumors’. However, with the support of new administration, Shakespeare, along with ‘Macbeth,’ are here to stay.

“For a while, we hadn’t done a Shakespeare, as the county saw it as ‘archaic,’ so kids and teens wouldn’t be able to relate to it.” Fight Captain Charlotte Reed (’18), who stars as Lady Macbeth, said. “But, we were really drawn to do Macbeth this year because we feel Shakespeare is still awesome today, and Macbeth is one of his most timeless, terrifying shows.”

The return of Shakespeare to Madison’s stage, even after the play’s trials against the county, go to show the timelessness and strength of his plays.