We're into the home stretch here!
THE STORY SO FAR: Lady Macbeth, having successfully persuaded her husband to murder King Duncan in order to become king himself, has become somewhat unhinged as her increasingly distant husband starts murdering more and more people to secure his grip on the crown.
"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" is up there with "To be or not to be" and "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" in the ranking of famous Shakespearean quotes. I think one of the hardest things about playing Lady Macbeth has to be making her descent into the madness of this scene believable. She is so in control and domineering in the early scenes that it can be hard to believe she would suffer such a catastrophic mental collapse. Does she snap? Or does her sanity gradual erode after Duncan's murder and her husband's subsequent distancing slide into tyranny?
Here are two different interpretations of the scene. The first one, featuring Judi Dench, is, unsurprisingly, one of the best versions of the scene that I've seen so far. Her "Oh! Oh! Oh!" is primal and deeply unsettling.
Judi Dench and Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth
Macbeth
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