GCSE English Literature / Drama: Macbeth - Act 5, Scene 1 - Candle in the dark (workshop)

Video summary

The director and actors experiment with the staging of the sleepwalking scene.

What happens to the relationships when the whole of the scene is played in a small circle of light?

This short film is from the BBC series, Shakespeare Unlocked.

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Teacher Notes

This short film could be used to demonstrate different staging techniques and how this echoes light and dark imagery from the play.

In pairs, ask your students to discuss the following questions:

  • What is the effect of playing the scene in a small pool of light?
  • Would your students choose to play it this way?
  • What would this practical performance choice tell us about Lady Macbeth and her journey?
  • If they were directing would students choose for Lady Macbeth to know the doctor and gentlewoman are there or not? Why?

It has been suggested that most, if not all, of the scenes in Macbeth could take place in the dark.

In groups, ask students to look at some of the other scenes in the play, and consider how lighting them in a different way might affect the audience.

Ask students to try and find as many references to light and darkness in the play as they can.

How important a theme is the contrast between light and darkness, and how does it relate to the kind of choice that Macbeth was speaking about in his soliloquy, ‘If it were done’?

This short film is suitable for teaching GCSE English literature and drama in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 4/ 5 in Scotland.

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The doctor and lady-in-waiting witness Lady Macbeth sleepwalking.

Act 5, Scene 1 - Sleepwalking

The director investigates how knowledge of Lady Macbeth’s secret changes the lives of others.

Act 5, Scene 1 - Sleepwalking Queen (workshop)

RSC Head of Voice, Lyn Darnley, helps Aislín McGuckin through a series of voice exercises.

Act 5, Scene 1 - Unlocking the words (workshop)

A look at the production and how the design is informed by the period in which Macbeth was written.

About the 2011 RSC production

A look at the different ways of performing the scene when Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to kill the king.

Act 1, Scene 7 - Persuading Macbeth (workshop)

Macbeth debates the murder of King Duncan and decides against it. Lady Macbeth uses a battery of strategies to change his mind.

Act 1, Scene 7 - To Kill the King

Macbeth has committed the murder and is overcome with guilt and fear.

Act 2, Scene 2 - Bloody Daggers

The cast explore how Lady Macbeth takes control as Macbeth struggles with his guilty conscience.

Act 2, Scene 2 - Hearing noises (workshop)

The cast discuss iambic pentameter and explore the rhythm of Shakespeare’s language.

Act 2, Scene 2 - Rhythm of the language (workshop)

The actors and director explore the Macbeths' very different responses to Duncan’s murder.

Act 2, Scene 2 - The king is dead (workshop)

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