Putting a Good Stop with Macbeth

(7) Maal Fikri Jelani

Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth,

Thy work of art is one a piece,

Thy looks of fear hearts with me,

May he will know why suffer thee,

May he will see what become of me.

It has been a long journey with Macbeth. Somehow rather the play is more than a tragedy. We often think that people pry of tragedy. We think that tragedy is always part of our lives. We believe that tragedy is a must when it comes to human life. What say you? Do you think your life is a tragedy?

I would want to close Macbeth with a good stop. These are my thoughts and words which I’ve chosen carefully.

“Macbeth is more than a work of art. It is life told into a story close within our hearts. We may fear the fact that our fate is not easy but yet alone never to let ourselves live in great sufferings. Macbeth has thought this young mind to look, to think and be wiser in life.”

I would say that it has been a great deal of trouble to learn Macbeth, but I could see and sense the value of this play. The biggest burden now is fall upon to me to see, how I would generate the future younger generation “to look, to think and be wise”. This is going to be a great deal of responsibility and I hope this closing will be an opening to a new beginning.

TO LOOK, TO THINK, AND BE WISE!

Video 1 VS Video 2

(6) Maal Fikri Jelani

Well, I have to agree, both video were a big challenge for me. Both productions require me to speak using unfamiliar language. The first production required everyone to speak using the original Shakespearean language whereas the second one was in the local dialect. Seriously I may live in the north but I can’t speak like one. Funny as it seems, I could only understand them. Nevertheless, there was a really good feeling about the second production.

I admit having more fun and pleasure in the second production. This time, we at least get to speak the lines in Malay and the meaning of the play has a different angle. We are all more familiar using the first language therefore making it much easier to get along with the production. We practically had the flow of the play in our heads and only needed it to be transfer in the local dialect.

We tried to inculcate local features into this production such as the “baju melayu” and the sarongs. We even put in the “nenek kebayan” which is a local understanding of witches. I find the second production is much friendlier compared to the first one. But I would also have to admit that without knowing the whole play first, it would be a difficult task for people outside the text of Macbeth to understand with what is going on.

A t the end, I would still value the fact that having to learn Macbeth and exploiting it using different language has been a great experience. All and all, I hope the this knowledge gained would be put into good use in the future.

Persona Poem

(5) Maal Fikri Jelani

 

Murderers

Cowards, Merciless, Faceless,

Killers of Innocents,

Who became the puppets of gold, leaders of blood money,

Who is being controlled by wealth and greed,

Who killed Banquo for sake of need,

Residents of forsaken desire,

Lowly wretches of Scottish lands,

Murderers!

I dedicate this to the murderers in Macbeth. I just wanted to give a piece of mind for these characters. They are not given much voice in the play, therefore I decided to give some words to describe them more in details.

He Who Tells The Future?

(4) Maal Fikri Jelani

I find it interesting when the life of heroes is determined by fate of prophecy. Macbeth is indeed a hero created by the witches with their foul play. I find it really unfair for one with such powers to do as what they desire and ruin other people’s lives for the show of it. It has come to my understanding how brilliant Shakespeare and how he is ahead of his time. He wrote stories, plays and poems which we are still using in this 21^st century. Could he have been a witch himself? Or was it coincidently that Shakespeare had the ability to write such play?

I was all over the net searching for answers. I did not find one that satisfies me. All was about the history of Shakespeare and nothing about linking Shakespeare with the supernatural. Great works that has survived for hundreds of years must have a special spell to it. This may sounds farfetched and so, but I still believe there is a mystery to all the works written by Shakespeare. It would take me years  more to find out, but after getting closer to more of Shakespeare’s works, I feel that there are more to than just the words used in his plays.

I believe that his work was more than just knowledge of the present, but also the knowledge of the future!