The last moments of a production are important because they can greatly alter the audiences' interpretation of the entire play. This is especially true in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. A number of unanswered questions such as who is responsible for Macbeth's fate and whether peace is restored to the kingdom gather at the end of the original play. In each of the different productions, directors Roman Polanski and Trevor Nunn allude to these answers.
Shakespeare's play ends with Malcolm saying to his kinsman:

We shall not spend a large expense of time
Before we reckon with your several loves
And make us even with you. My Thanes and kinsmen,



Henceforth be Earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honor named. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,



As calling home our exiled friends abroad,
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen-
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life-this and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of grace
We will perform in measure, time, and place.
So thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.


(5.11.26-41)

Because his speech merely recaps past events that the audience already knows and does not provide any revelation into the unanswered questions of the play, Malcolm's speech leaves the audience with ambiguities. The speech contains no comments on where to place the blame of Macbeth's fate, thus the audience must decide for themselves as to whether Macbeth alone stands responsible for his fate or whether the witches participation holds them as the responsible ones.

Director Roman Polanski attempts an answer to this ambiguity in the last scene of his production of Macbeth. The evening turns to dusk, and the air holds a hazy mystical feel. The sound of the witches playing a flute-like musical instrument rises from behind two large rocks. Then Donalbain, leaving his horse behind, limps toward those rocks intently looking for those whom he believes reside there. He then disappears behind the rocks and the music stops, insinuating that they will now prophesize the future for Donalbain. In his last scene, Polanski leaves the viewer with the notion that the witches control fate like puppeteers with their dolls, the kingdom and its inhabitants are as mere pawns in their game. Donalbain stands to gain the throne after the death of his elder brother Malcolm; therefore he becomes the perfect toy for the witches. Polanski creates this notion that the witches control the kingdom and its inhabitants in order to prove that ultimately Macbeth does not control his own fate and therefore does not hold responsibility for his own actions. Macbeth foreshadows the idea that fate holds ultimate power and people only act out their minor roles in the brief production of life, when he says, Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more"(5.5.23-25). Polanski reinforces the same idea stated in Macbeths speech in the final moments of the production with the image of the witches controlling Donalbain just as they ultimately control Macbeth during his life.



The last moments of a production are important because they can greatly alter the audiences' interpretation of the entire play. This is especially true in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. A number of unanswered questions such as who is responsible for Macbeth's fate and whether peace is restored to the kingdom gather at the end of the original play. In each of the different productions, directors Roman Polanski and Trevor Nunn allude to these answers.
Shakespeare's play ends with Malcolm saying to his kinsman:

We shall not spend a large expense of time
Before we reckon with your several loves
And make us even with you. My Thanes and kinsmen,



Henceforth be Earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honor named. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,



As calling home our exiled friends abroad,
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen-
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life-this and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of grace
We will perform in measure, time, and place.
So thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.


(5.11.26-41)

Because his speech merely recaps past events that the audience already knows and does not provide any revelation into the unanswered questions of the play, Malcolm's speech leaves the audience with ambiguities. The speech contains no comments on where to place the blame of Macbeth's fate, thus the audience must decide for themselves as to whether Macbeth alone stands responsible for his fate or whether the witches participation holds them as the responsible ones.

Director Roman Polanski attempts an answer to this ambiguity in the last scene of his production of Macbeth. The evening turns to dusk, and the air holds a hazy mystical feel. The sound of the witches playing a flute-like musical instrument rises from behind two large rocks. Then Donalbain, leaving his horse behind, limps toward those rocks intently looking for those whom he believes reside there. He then disappears behind the rocks and the music stops, insinuating that they will now prophesize the future for Donalbain. In his last scene, Polanski leaves the viewer with the notion that the witches control fate like puppeteers with their dolls, the kingdom and its inhabitants are as mere pawns in their game. Donalbain stands to gain the throne after the death of his elder brother Malcolm; therefore he becomes the perfect toy for the witches. Polanski creates this notion that the witches control the kingdom and its inhabitants in order to prove that ultimately Macbeth does not control his own fate and therefore does not hold responsibility for his own actions. Macbeth foreshadows the idea that fate holds ultimate power and people only act out their minor roles in the brief production of life, when he says, Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more"(5.5.23-25). Polanski reinforces the same idea stated in Macbeths speech in the final moments of the production with the image of the witches controlling Donalbain just as they ultimately control Macbeth during his life.