Macbeth

Presented by Le Théâtre de l'épée de bois

“The fears we feel are nothing compared to the terrors we imagine.” What Shakespeare radically states is that what is not, what is solely the stuff of our dreams, visions, desires – this alone is what exists and forms the secret fabric of our lives. This quote brings about a fundamental reversal: Macbeth ceases to be a play about a murderous king to become the portrait of a man devoured by the anticipation of his actions. As A. C. Bradley points out, Macbeth possesses a “poet’s imagination”: it is this that transforms ambition into hallucinated visions, making the floating dagger or Banquo’s ghost more real than the throne itself….

This interpretation is rooted in recent studies on pathological imagination during the Renaissance. Suparna Roychoudhury shows that the play questions “the fine line between hallucinatory fantasy and ordinary subjectivity” and poses a crucial question: to what extent do our mental images belong to us? She also posits that the secret fabric of Macbeth (his dreams, his anticipated fears) is the tragedy’s only true character. Reality (the court, the battles) is merely a blurred backdrop. By giving substance to what is not, Shakespeare shows that the imaginary does not prepare for action: it is the action, and it consumes. Birnam Wood does not advance: it arises from Macbeth’s terrified gaze, because it is there, in his eye, that the only fate that matters is woven… Jérôme Méla

*The historical context: witchcraft, politics, and royal patronage. This dive into the imaginary takes on particular significance in light of the play’s sources and context. Shakespeare draws from Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587), but takes major liberties. He transforms Banquo – an accomplice to the murder in the chronicle – into an upright figure, a direct homage to King James I, Banquo’s supposed descendant. This choice is all the more significant