Macbeth

The Sourcebooks Shakespeare Edition of Macbeth features an integrated audio CD with 26 classic performances by different actors throughout the twentieth century, narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi. Detailed essays, commentary and photos accompany our newly edited text of the play with insights from a noted Shakespeare scholar.

Hear 14 classic scenes including:
--Orson Welles and Sir Alec Guinness, both as Macbeth
--Harriet Walter and Fiona Shaw, both as Lady Macbeth
--David Tennant as the Porter

See images from notable productions:
--Trevor Nunn's 1976 RSC production with Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench
--Roman Polanski's 1971 film
--Michael Kahn's 2004 production at the Shakespeare Theatre Company
--Costume and set renderings from the 1937-38 production at the Old Vic starring Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson

Read essays and commentary with insights from:
--Gregory Doran, Chief Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company on Shakespeare in performance
--Douglas Lanier, editor of Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture on Macbeth as inspiration for contemporary media
--Text editor William P. Williams, 2003-04 Hinman Fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library, on productions of Shakespeare throughout history

Additional essays dissect a contemporary performance, offer a modern cast's insights into their characters, and uncover the history of Shakespeare's world.

William Proctor Williams is Professor of English Emeritus at Northern Illinois University and Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Akron. He has received numerous grants and awards including a National Endowment for the Humanities research grant, a Senior Fulbright Research Fellowship, and in 2003-2004 was the Myra and Charlton Hinman Fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library. He is currently at work on The New Variorum Edition of Titus Andronicus, a critical edition of The Works of Cosmo Manuche, and a study of Dr. Zachariah Pasfield who licensed books for the press from 1600 until 1610.

David Bevington is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor in Humanities at the University of Chicago. A renowned text scholar, he has edited several Shakespeare editions including the Bantam Shakespeare in individual paperback volumes, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Longman, 2003) and Troilus and Cressida (Arden, 1998). He teaches courses in Shakespeare, Renaissance Drama and Medieval Drama.

Peter Holland is the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame. One of the central figures in performance-oriented Shakespeare criticism, he has also edited many Shakespeare plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Oxford Shakespeare series.