Macbeth

By William Shakespeare and Migdalia Cruz

In Migdalia Cruz’s Macbeth, the Witches run the world. The Macbeths live out a dark cautionary tale of love, greed, and power, falling from glory into calamity as the Witches spin their fate. Translating Shakespeare’s language for a modern audience, Nuyorican playwright Migdalia Cruz rewrites Macbeth with all the passion of the Bronx.  

This translation of Macbeth was presented in 2018 as part of the Play On! Shakespeare project, an ambitious undertaking from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that commissioned new translations of 39 Shakespeare plays. These translations present the Bard’s work in language accessible to modern audiences while never losing the beauty of Shakespeare’s verse. Enlisting the talents of a diverse group of contemporary playwrights, screenwriters, and dramaturges from diverse backgrounds, this project reenvisions Shakespeare for the twenty-first century. These volumes make these works available for the first time in print—a new First Folio for a new era.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• Release date: May 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9780866986632

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Book preview

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Play On Shakespeare

Macbeth

Play On Shakespeare

Macbeth

by

William Shakespeare

Modern verse translation by

Migdalia Cruz

Dramaturgy by

Ishia Bennison

Arizona State University

Tempe, Arizona

2021

Copyright ©2021 Migdalia Cruz.

All rights reserved. No part of this script may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage or retrieval systems without the written permission of the author. All performance rights reside with the author. For performance permission, contact: Play On Shakespeare, PO Box 955, Ashland, OR 97520,

[e-mail]

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Publication of Play On Shakespeare is assisted by

generous support from the Hitz Foundation.

For more information, please visit www.playonshakespeare.org

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Published by ACMRS Press

Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies,

Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

www.acmrspress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cruz, Migdalia, author. | Bennison, Ishia, dramaturge. | Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Macbeth.

Title: Macbeth / by William Shakespeare ; modern verse translation by Migdalia Cruz ; dramaturgy by Ishia Bennison.

Description: Tempe, Arizona : ACMRS Press, 2021. | Series: Play on Shakespeare | Summary: In Migdalia Cruz’s Macbeth, the Witches run the world. The Macbeths live out a dark cautionary tale of love, greed, and power, falling from glory into calamity as the Witches spin their fate. Translating Shakespeare’s language for a modern audience, Nuyorican playwright Migdalia Cruz rewrites Macbeth with all the passion of the Bronx-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021001978 (print) | LCCN 2021001979 (ebook) | ISBN 9780866986601 (paperback) | ISBN 9780866986632 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Macbeth, King of Scotland, active 11th century--Drama.

Classification: LCC PR2878.M3 C78 2021 (print) | LCC PR2878.M3 (ebook) | DDC 812/.54--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001978

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001979

We wish to acknowledge our gratitude

for the extraordinary generosity of the

Hitz Foundation

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Special thanks to the Play on Shakespeare staff

Lue Douthit, CEO/Creative Director

Kamilah Long, Managing Director

Taylor Bailey, Associate Creative Director

Summer Martin, Director of Learning Engagement

Katie Kennedy, Publications Project Manager

Amrita Ramanan, Senior Cultural Strategist and Dramaturg

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Originally commissioned by the

Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Bill Rauch, Artistic Director

Cynthia Rider, Executive Director

SERIES PREFACE

Play On Shakespeare

In 2015, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced a new commissioning program. It was called Play on!: 36 playwrights translate Shakespeare. It elicited a flurry of reactions. For some people this went too far: You can’t touch the language!. For others, it didn’t go far enough: Why not new adaptations? I figured we would be on the right path if we hit the sweet spot in the middle.

Some of the reaction was due not only to the scale of the project, but its suddenness: 36 playwrights, along with 38 dramaturgs, had been commissioned and assigned to translate 39 plays, and they were already hard at work on the assignment. It also came fully funded by the Hitz Foundation with the shocking sticker price of $3.7 million.

I think most of the negative reaction, however, had to do with the use of the word translate. It’s been difficult to define precisely. It turns out that there is no word for the kind of subtle and rigorous examination of language that we are asking for. We don’t mean word for word, which is what most people think of when they hear the word translate. We don’t mean paraphrase, either.

The project didn’t begin with 39 commissions. Linguist John McWhorter’s musings about translating Shakespeare is what sparked this project. First published in his 1998 book Word on the Street and reprinted in 2010 in American Theatre magazine, he notes that the irony today is that the Russians, the French, and other people in foreign countries possess Shakespeare to a much greater extent than we do, for the simple reason that they get to enjoy Shakespeare in the language they speak.

This intrigued Dave Hitz, a long-time patron of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and he offered to support a project that looked at Shakespeare’s plays through the lens of the English we speak today. How much has the English language changed since Shakespeare? Is it possible that there are conventions in the early modern English of Shakespeare that don’t translate to us today, especially in the moment of hearing it spoken out loud as one does in the theater?

How might we carry forward the successful communication between actor and audience that took place 400 years ago? Carry forward, by the way, is what we mean by translate. It is the fourth definition of translate in the Oxford English Dictionary.

As director of literary development and dramaturgy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I was given the daunting task of figuring out how to administer the project. I began with Kenneth Cavander, who translates ancient Greek tragedies into English. I figured that someone who does that kind of work would lend an air of seriousness to the project. I asked him, how might he go about translating from the source language of early modern English into the target language of contemporary modern English?

He looked at different kinds of speech: rhetorical and poetical, soliloquies and crowd scenes, and the puns in comedies. What emerged from his tinkering became a template for the translation commission. These weren’t rules exactly, but instructions that every writer was given.

First, do no harm. There is plenty of the language that doesn’t need translating. And there is some that does. Every playwright had different criteria for assessing what to change.

Second, go line-by-line. No editing, no cutting, no fixing. I want the whole play translated. We often cut the gnarly bits

Reviews for Macbeth

[obrien8341 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Obviously, Shakespeare is a poetic genius. This play is beautifully written and contains messages about morality. Although Shakespeare's writing can be sometimes hard to understand, I followed this play very well and found it very entertaining. It is interesting to notice the way that fate plays a huge role in the outcome of the play.

[jcbrunner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having just read a biography about the bard, I read or better re-read the tragedy of Macbeth. Its strength lies in the fantastic special effects. Witches, ghosts and woods grab the attention much more than the bloody body count. While Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have become stock characters, they lack the inherent ambivalence that makes Shakespeare’s villains great. Mr and Mrs Macbeth are but a greedy power couple that loses control of the events it triggered. Incidentally, the tragedy of Macbeth nearly passes the Bechdel test – if only he had given names to the witches or created a female sidekick for Lady Macbeth. The visual nature of the play really calls for the theater not a reading.

[tryion · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My all time favorite.

[xicanti_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a wonderful play with so many great things going on. One of my favourite lines comes when MacDuff learns that his family has been killed. He says, "Oh, my pretty chickens!" As those of you who've read the play will know, much of it revolves around the idea that fair is foul and foul is fair. Pretty chickens are fair fowls. I can't help but wonder if Shakespeare did that deliberately.Stuff like that kills me.

[sdtaylor555 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, so I won't rate any of his works very high

[kaelirenee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's interesting to consider the role fate has in this play. And of course, it helps to have the guides at the bottom of the page that explains some of the texts.

[jeroenberndsen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic editions this is, the play on the right page, and explanations and supprt material on the left. You don't have to read it, but if you come across words you don't understand, It's pretty convenient!The story itself, well that off course has lost nothing of it's magic....

[danielalgara · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We have much to learn from Maestro's use of language. In Macbeth, it is surprisingly accessible and fast-paced.

I marvel at his choice at what occurs offstage, like the murder of Duncan. Yet the murder of Macduff's family, including children, happens for all to see. It is postulated that the Duncan scene was cut by someone else. But it actually does something interesting. It increases Macbeth's increasingly murderous character, intensifies his evil as a progression in his paranoia.

I have many more thoughts , of course, but I must stew. Perhaps I'll return to solidify my thoughts on this masterly work of art.

[misslizzy_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this play my senior year of high school, and immediately enjoyed it more than HAMLET, especially because of the three Witches. And when my teacher pointed out that the punctuation within one of Lady Macbeth's paragraphs seems to connotate that she is reaching orgasm simply by talking about all the power she is about to obtain, I was hooked. I love several of the monologues.

[fluffyblue_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What can you say about Macbeth that's not already been said? I thought I would find it difficult to understand, having not read any Shakespeare before, but it just took a bit of slow reading and thinking about what the meaning might be. I think if you've not read Shakespeare before, this might be a good place to start.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Truly among the best of the Bard's dramas. Full of great dramatic images -- the supernatural, passion for power and scenes of great intensity. It's easier to follow than King Lear because it moves forward in a straight line with no sub-plots. The ending, with images juxtaposed through the various almost overlapping scenes adds to the dramatic tension.

[regularguy5mb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dark and supernatural, Macbeth is one of my favorite of Shakespeare's tragedies. One of the biggest questions I always ask is, "Would the weird sisters' prophecies come to pass even if Macbeth hadn't gone all murder crazy?"Macbeth is a great cautionary tale of the dangers of ambition, especially when it comes to power. Shakespeare explores what lengths men will go to for power, especially when they believe it is owed them.Adding this copy to my Little Free Library in hopes that someone in the neighborhood can learn something from it, especially as certain phrases remind me of the current political climate and I know the way my neighbors tend to vote.

[engpunk77 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Actually enjoyed this one, and I typically loathe reading Shakespeare. This and Hamlet are the only ones worth reading, in my opinion.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't recall reading Macbeth since high school, yet as I listened to the audio version I found myself quoting lines along with the actors. The play seems like it's full of cliches, yet it's the source for phrases like “vaulting ambition”, “a charmed life”, “be-all and end-all”, and “milk of human kindness”. Reader that I am, I also caught several book titles “borrowed” from its lines: Borrower of the Night (Elizabeth Peters), Look to the Lady (Margery Allingham), Light Thickens (Ngaio Marsh), By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Agatha Christie), Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury), The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner). I'm a long-time fan of the TV series All Creatures Great and Small, so it was a little disconcerting to hear Siegfried Farnon (i.e., Robert Hardy) in the role of Duncan. That aside, it's an exciting dramatization of one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.

[allriledup · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can't believe I hadn't read this sooner and hope to see a production of it one of these days. I must say I have a soft spot in my heart for the three weird sisters.

[nmg1-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

studied this play during 2nd level education. Certain lines still stick with me to this day. Amazing to think of its sheer impact, centuries into the future (and still going strong!).

[morgannakerrie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was my father's, now it is mine. Each fan of Shakespeare has read this one. It's a goodie.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

MACBETH ranks with A Midsummer Night's Dream as my favorite Shakespeare.It deals with how we all face Evil, the consequences within and without.The opening lines, here and in Roman Polanski's indelible film, often stay with readers foreveras do so many other memorable words, fears, and actions.The only reason for not ranking it a Five Star-Plus book is MacDuff.Like his wife, I still can figure out no logical reason for leaving his wife and children behindwhile he flees to England. And why did he not tell his cousin to hide or bring them when the cousin stopped to see them?Ideas welcome.

[barb_h_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Audiobook. It was done like a play and very enjoyable =)

[liammurrray · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed reading this play write even after the 1st time reading it a few years earlier. Although much of the language is hard to understand as it is written by Shakespeare in a complete different time period, it expresses an awesome story about the corruption of power. Initially, Macbeth is a character of the most heroic attributes, and his first acts present him as a very noble man. It is sad to see him be brought to his downfall after his wife brings the dark side out of him and herself as well. The corruption of having a great deal of power is presented by this play, and Macbeth is brought to his death because of this pursuit of power. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Shakespeareian plays or the history of the Middle Ages.

[aethercowboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Scottish play is well known for those who know a thing or two about Shakespeare. This play tells the tale betrayal, guilt, hubris, and witchcraft, threading together plots and wordplay only as Shakespeare could do.Recommended for any fan of Shakespeare, or by any fan of British fantasy.

[ragwaine · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not fun to read. A cool line every 20 lines or so. Pretty good story, I would have enjoyed it more if it was written in regular, somewhat poetic prose.

[mbmackay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Re-read this classic in the Signature Shakespeare edition - beautiful presentation, and useful notes and explanations. Interesting to contrast the awful reputation of the Shakespearian Macbeth with the vastly different person that historians now document. I read a book on the real Macbeth a few years ago which claimed that he was the most unfairly maligned figure in history. But you read the play for Shakespeare, not historic accuracy, and this play is a ripper. Read March 2015

[atothel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Classic. My favorite SS play.

[mjmbecky · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although I'm an English teacher, I have to admit that Macbeth is not one of my personal favorites. Does that mean that the play isn't brilliant? Absolutely not. Shakespeare, once again, exhibits the full range of characteristics and emotions that a human can display. Great play about the way a seemingly good man, can descend into the madness of becoming greedy and a murderer.

[paradox98_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite in any sense. An interesting read. Worth the read for the exposure to Shakespeare's writing. The story itself, however, wasn't as engaging for me personally. Because I read it at 2AM had something to do with it, I'm sure. I'll revisit it, I'm sure.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think this is one which needs to be seen. It seemed very slow to me, aside from the bits with murder and ghosts.

[391_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Macbeth performed is one of the most thrilling and engrossing plays I've ever seen. Macbeth read is...well. It's Shakespeare's shortest play, and I feel like that is apparent in the rather harried and haphazard plot, the miscellany of characters who wander in and out and are never seen again, and the lack of character development for pretty much everyone who isn't Macbeth himself.But on the other hand, this play is the source of some of the greatest speeches ever written - "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,...Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing."I mean, it's just gorgeous.

[jfoster_sf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Classic tragedy.

[locriian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The ending is the best. That and what always stuck with me was the image of the floating dagger.