View source for Macbett

{{short description|1972 satirical play by Eugène Ionesco}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox play
| name       = Macbett
| image      = 
| image_size = 
| caption    = 
| writer     = [[Eugène Ionesco]]
| characters = 
| setting    = 
| premiere   =  1972
| place      =  Théâtre de l'Alliance française
| orig_lang  =  French
| subject    = 
| genre      = satire
}}
'''''Macbett''''' is [[Eugène Ionesco]]'s [[satire]] on [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Macbeth]]'' first staged in 1972.{{sfn|Billington|2007}}{{sfn|Curtiss|1972}}

==Plot==
Two generals, Macbett and Banco, put down a rebellion. In payment for their heroic service, Archduke Duncan promises to bestow on them land, titles and cash, but he reneges on the deal. Encouraged by the seductive Lady Duncan, Macbett plots to assassinate the Archduke and crown himself King. He tries to maintain his tenuous grip on the throne through a vicious cycle of murder and bloodshed. Meanwhile, he is haunted by the ghosts of his victims and discovers that his new wife is not all that she seems.

==Themes==
Written during the [[Cold War]], Ionesco's ''Macbett'' remoulds Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'' into a comic tale of ambition, corruption, cowardice and excess, creating a [[tragic]] [[farce]] which takes human folly to its wildest extremes. Innovations include a long conversation between the thanes of Glamiss and Candor, the characters of a lemonade seller and butterfly hunter, and the revelation that the rightful heir to the throne is a worse tyrant than Macbett ever was.{{sfn|Smith|2003|pp=77–78}}

==See also==
* [[List of Romanian plays]]

==References==
{{reflist|20em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|30em}}
*{{cite web
  |title = Macbett
  |last = Billington
  |first = Michael
  |author-link = Michael Billington (critic)
  |website = [[The Guardian]]
  |date = 18 June 2007
  |access-date = 6 January 2018
  |url = https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/jun/18/theatre
  }}
*{{cite news
  |title = Ionesco Upends ''Macbeth'' Story
  |last = Curtiss
  |first = Thomas Quinn
  |newspaper = [[The New York Times]]
  |date = 9 February 1972
  |page = 45
  |access-date = 6 January 2018
  |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/09/archives/ionesco-upends-macbeth-story-shakespeares-play-detours-into.html
  }}
*{{cite book
  |title = ''Macbeth'': Language and Writing
  |last = Smith
  |first = Emma
  |series = Arden Student Guides
  |publisher = [[A&C Black]]
  |year = 2003
  |isbn = 9781408156032
  }}
{{refend}}

{{Ionesco Plays}}
{{Macbeth}}

[[Category:Plays by Eugène Ionesco]]
[[Category:Theatre of the Absurd]]
[[Category:1972 plays]]
[[Category:Plays and musicals based on Macbeth]]
[[Category:Plays set in Scotland]]
[[Category:Satirical plays]]


{{1970s-play-stub}}