Trevor Nunn, the director of the 1976 RSC production of Macbeth clearly portrays the character of Lady Macbeth as she is portrayed in the written play. In this production Macbeth is played by Ian McKellen and Lady Macbeth by Judi Dench. Judi Dench portrays Lady Macbeth by using several different methods. These are lighting, props used, the costume she is wearing, her movement and gestures and the tone of voice she speaks in. All of these portray a different aspect of Lady Macbeth's character in Act 1 Scene 5. This is the scene in which she receives a letter from Macbeth about the murder of Duncan; she is scared of what she is going to do so she asks for the spirits help to get her through it.
Through - out the play Lady Macbeth is portrayed as an evil character. " the babe that milks me - /I would, while it was smiling in my face,/have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,/and dashed the brains out," There she is saying she would dash her baby's brains out, this shows clearly she is evil, no one would be evil enough to kill their own baby. The darkness of the set in the production of RSC I think is to show her evil side in the play. There is also a lot of darkness imagery in the play, which I think is another reason why the set was dark in the video. .
The appearance of Judi Dench in the video also paints a clear picture of Lady Macbeth's character in the play. The costume she is wearing is dark, this shows her evilness, it is shapeless, which shows the way she has defeministed and the fact she wearing a headscarf shows us this also. "unsex me here," This is a quote from the play that shows her losing her feminine side. .
Lady Macbeth is portrayed in the as duplicitous, hypocritical and two faced in the play. In the video the lighting on her face shows us this. One side of her face is dark and the other light. In the play one minute she is evil and wants to murder Duncan and doesn't show any emotion in that she wants to do this.
