Malachai

Of the three adaptations of Macbeth that we’ve read or watched (Travesties, uMbatha, and Throne of Blood) my favorite example was the Travesties. This was mainly due to the fact that this adaptation was hilarious. This variation was an excellent parody of the original, and considering it was 1600’s humor, it is still surprisingly very funny. Additionally, the writing was much easier to understand than the other adaptations, because it used much plainer speech, allowing anyone to understand it. In the other examples, the writing is complex and the words are hard to understand. In Macbeth, for example, the porter has a seemingly random set of lines that are really just dirty jokes. This scene actually was meant for the audience of the present day, as the dirty jokes of the porter in reality were all references to the gunpowder plot. When I read it myself however, this scene meant almost nothing to me, as I did not grasp the suggestions that someone living in the 1600’s would have. Thus, I found Macbeth confusing. This was also the case in uMbatha. I did not enjoy this adaptation much as it was almost the same as its former. This piece was almost exactly like Macbeth, only it used different names that were much harder to pronounce such as Kamakhawulana. Otherwise, it was almost the same story as Macbeth, with some small changes to incorporate African culture into the story. In the story of uMbatha, there was no originality, an as a result I found it lacking.

For the adaptations uMbatha and Throne of Blood, the authors found it necessary to change the cultures of the characters in order to cater to their wants. For example, in Throne of Blood, the characters were all followed the customs of the historical samurai warrior, and rather than a King, this story was ruled by a lord of a castle. In uMbatha as well, there was change in order to address culture. Lady Macbeth became Kamakhawulana, and the king became the Chief. I believe that these changes of culture both helped to make the story better in a few cases as well as detracted. One case that was beneficial was in Throne of Blood during the banquet. When lord Washizu (Macbeth) sees the ghost of Miki (Banquo) in the banquet, Washizu’s madness is made much more apparent by the fact that the culture has his guests sitting on the floor and eating quietly. Thus, when Washizu gets up screaming, his detachment from the others is strongly accentuated. I believe that scenes like this deeply improved the resulting adaptations.