William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, was intended to be performed, rather than read. There are many factors that need to be considered when casting, performing and staging a production of the play.
Reading a novel is something that you would usually do on your own; watching a play in the theatre is very much a shared experience. An audience is made up of different sorts of people, all of whom will have different reactions to what they are seeing and hearing. We all react differently to what is in a novel too but not usually all at the same time.
A novel could be compared to a finished building but a script for a play is more like the foundations of a building. The words will be built on and developed by a director and the actors and this will be further enhanced by costumes, lighting, scenery and a whole host of technical and artistic choices. These will have an influence on how the audience reacts to the play. The three key areas we are going to look at are: