The Examiner's Trap: The "English Lit" Essay
Do not write about metaphors or iambic pentameter in your Drama exam! Examiners want to know how the actor says the words. Every time you drop a quote, you must immediately attach a vocal skill (pitch, pace, tone, volume) and a physical skill (posture, gesture, facial expression) to prove you are thinking like an actor or director.
Macbeth
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?
🎬 Performance Strategy:
Start with a breathless, whispered volume and a trembling pitch to show sheer terror. Physically, the actor should stumble backward, eyes wide and fixated on an empty space Downstage, reaching out a trembling, hesitant hand.
Lady Macbeth
Out, damned spot! out, I say!
🎬 Performance Strategy:
Deliver this with a rapid, frantic pace and a broken, cracking tone. Physically, the actor must use the obsessive, repetitive gesture of vigorously scrubbing her hands together, hunching her shoulders to show her complete psychological collapse.
Macbeth
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
🎬 Performance Strategy:
Use a sharp intake of breath and a pained, guttural tone. Physically, the actor should clutch his temples in agony. Crucially, he should turn his back to Lady Macbeth (proxemics), showing the audience that his paranoia is isolating him from her.
Lady Macbeth
Come, you spirits... unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty!
🎬 Performance Strategy:
She is rejecting her femininity to gain power. The actor should drop their vocal pitch to a low, resonant, commanding tone. Physically, she should stand with a wide, grounded stance, opening her arms out and tilting her head back to command the space.
Lady Macbeth
When you durst do it, then you were a man.
🎬 Performance Strategy:
Deliver this with a sharp, biting inflection, spitting the consonants out. She must use invasive proxemics, stepping aggressively into Macbeth's personal space and pointing a stiff finger directly at his chest to physically emasculate him.
Macduff
I shall do so; But I must also feel it as a man.
🎬 Performance Strategy:
Upon hearing his family is dead, Macduff redefines masculinity as involving emotional grief. The actor's voice should break with a heavy sob, using a low volume. Physically, he should drop to his knees, burying his face in his hands.
The Witches
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
🎬 Performance Strategy:
This must be delivered using Choral Speaking. All three actors speak in perfect, rhythmic unison to create an unnatural chanting effect. Physically, they should rock back and forth on low levels (crouching), moving as a single, terrifying entity.
Macbeth
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
🎬 Performance Strategy:
Screamed at full volume with a panicked, breathless pace as he hallucinates Banquo's ghost. Macbeth should stagger backward, throwing his arms up to shield his face, completely losing his regal posture in front of his lords.