Meet Joe Macbeth

Shakespeare Retold

Yesterday and tonight’s movies were contemporary retellings of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth. These are BBC productions that create modern scenarios for 400 year old stories and I have to say, they did an EXCELLENT job with them. The recreation of Macbeth focuses on a chef named Jo Macbeth who slaves away for years to acquire a top rating for the restaurant he works for. As soon as the restaurant receives news that it will be receiving one of England’s most prestigious awards however, the owner declares that the restaurant will be given to his son, a lower level “potato peeler” in the kitchen basically. This in spite of assurances and intimations over the years that Jo Macbeth would get the restaurant someday. The rest is … well … Macbeth slightly modified. For example, the three weird sisters are, in this movie, three garbage collectors who open the movie out in a garbage dump outside London eating sandwiches they have made from stuff they have picked up in dump runs.

This version of Much Ado About Nothing centers its plot line on two newscasters who play the roles of Benedict and Beatrice and I have to say, they pull it off perfectly. Shakespeare would have loved it I think. It amazes me that this guy’s plots are just so easy to transpose into multiple cultures and historical settings. The interesting thing is that watching these retellings left me seeing connections to my own life that I had not seen just watching the play. The Macbeth retelling particularly had me saying “I hadn’t quite seen the play like that” and “Of course that is what its about”. These two have me looking forward to my next Netflicks installment of them, Taming of the Shrew Retold and Midsummer’s Night’s Dream Retold.

One caveat here. Because the basic Shakspearean play, Macbeth is somewhat gruesome at times, so is this rendition of it (When Macbeth has his hallucinations). It might not be a kid friendly way to see Macbeth but I am not sure there is one.

Question for Comment: In this version of Shakespeare's Macbeth,  Joe Macbeth works long tireless hours for a boss who, when it is time for rewards, pats him on the back and stiffs him of previous assurances that he will one day get the restaraunt. Have you ever had this happen to you? I mean where someone acts like you will receive long term benefits for your work and then hands them off to someone else?