Macbett

Macbett (1972) is Eugène Ionesco's satire on Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Plot

Two generals, Macbett and Banco, put down a rebellion. In payment for their heroic service, Archduke Duncan promises to bestow on them land, titles and cash, but he reneges on the deal. Encouraged by the seductive Lady Duncan, Macbett plots to assassinate the Archduke and crown himself King. He tries to maintain his tenuous grip on the throne through a vicious cycle of murder and bloodshed. Meanwhile, he is haunted by the ghosts of his victims and discovers that his new wife is not all that she seems.

Themes

Written during the Cold War, Ionesco's Macbett remoulds Shakespeare's Macbeth into a comic tale of ambition, corruption, cowardice and excess, creating a tragic farce which takes human folly to its wildest extremes. Innovations include a long conversation between the thanes of "Glamiss" and "Candor" and a lemonade seller and butterfly hunter, and the revelation that the rightful heir to the throne is a worse tyrant than Macbett ever was.

Eugène Ionesco

Plays	The Bald Soprano (1950) The Lesson (1951) The Chairs (1952) Victims of Duty (1953) Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It (1954) Jack, or The Submission (1955) The New Tenant (1955) The Picture (1955) The Killer (1958) Rhinoceros (1959) Exit the King (1962) Hunger and Thirst (1964) Macbett (1972)

Novels	The Hermit (1973)

William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Characters	Macbeth Lady Macbeth Banquo Macduff King Duncan Malcolm Donalbain Three Witches Fleance Lady Macduff Macduff's son Young Siward

Inspirations	Macbeth, King of Scotland Gruoch of Scotland Duncan I of Scotland Malcolm III of Scotland Donald III of Scotland Siward, Earl of Northumbria

Sources	The Witch Holinshed's Chronicles Darraðarljóð

Film	1908 1909 (French) 1909 (Italian) 1911 1913 1915 1916 1922 1948 1971 2006 2015 Cancelled (Olivier)

Television	1954 1960 1961 1978 1983 1992 2005 2010

TV / film adaptations	The Real Thing at Last (1916) Joe MacBeth (1955) Throne of Blood (1957) Macbeth (Verdi opera) (1987) Men of Respect (1990) Scotland, PA (2001) Maqbool (2003) Shakespeare Must Die (2012)

Plays	Voodoo Macbeth (1936) MacBird! (1967) uMabatha (1970) Macbett (1972) Cahoot's Macbeth (1979) MacHomer (1995) Sleep No More (2003) Sleep No More (2009) Dunsinane (2010) Sleep No More (2011) Just Macbeth!

Operas	Macbeth (1847, Verdi) discography Macbeth (1910, Bloch)

Literary adaptations	Wyrd Sisters (1988) The Last King of Scotland (1998) The Tragedy of Macbeth Part II (2008)

Albums	Music from Macbeth (1972) Macbeth (1990) Thane to the Throne (2000) Shakespeare's Macbeth – A Tragedy in Steel (2003) Lady Macbeth (2005)

Art	Pity (1795) The Night of Enitharmon's Joy (1795) Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889)

Scenes and speeches	"On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" (1823) Sleepwalking Scene (5.1) "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow"

Words and phrases	"What's done is done" "Crack of doom" "The good doctor" "Strange but true" The Scottish Play Thane of Cawdor

Story within a story	We Work Again Light Thickens The Deadly Affair "The Movies" "Sleeping with the Enemy" "The Shower Principle" Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine The Scottish Play Burke & Hare

Episodes	"A Witch's Tangled Hare" (1959, Looney Tunes) "The Bellero Shield" (1964, The Outer Limits) "Sense and Senility" (1987, Blackadder the Third) "The Coup" (2006, The Office) "Dial "N" for Nerder" (2008, The Simpsons) "The Understudy" (2014, Inside No. 9)

Other	Macbeth (Strauss) The Scottish Play Piano Trios, Op. 70 (Beethoven) The Ruins of Cawdor House of Cards (UK, 1990) House of Cards (US, 2013–present) Four Great Women and a Manicure

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Macbett

Plot

Themes

See also