Macbeth

Went to New York to see Macbeth this weekend. It's one of the few "major" Shakespeare plays I'd never read or seen before. I enjoyed it pretty much. It's an awful, violent, savage story, and for the most part the characters are not very subtle, but the language is marvelous and Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard and X-Men) was great as Macbeth, keeping some humanity about a character that is violent and cruel beyond redemption.

There are all kinds of familiar lines in it, "What's done is done," "Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble," "Out damned spot!" and this marvelous rumination on death

"Out, out brief candle,
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Hearing Steward spit out the word "idiot" was a real highlight. At the end they carry out Macbeth's bloody severed head.

On that note, I'm going to watch the Oscars.