The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 23.0270  Tuesday, 26 June 2012

From:        Hardy M. Cook < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Date:         Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Subject:     Folger Shakespeare Library Macbeth with DVD of Teller/Posner Production

The pervious post, regarding the E-Book versions of the Folger Shakespeare Library editions, reminded me of the promise of a DVD version of the Teller/Posner Macbeth I saw at the Folger Elizabethan Theatre some years ago. 

A search of Amazon.com revealed that the DVD was packaged with the Folger Library paperback edition in late 2009 as Macbeth: The DVD Edition (Folger Shakespeare Library) [Paperback].

From Amazon: 

Macbeth: The DVD Edition includes everything you’ve come to expect from the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare’s plays—facing-page explanatory notes, scene-by-scene plot summaries, illustrations from the Folger archives—combined here with a bonus DVD of a performance of Macbeth recorded before a rapt audience in the Folger’s intimate Elizabethan Theatre. Conceived and directed by Teller (of Penn & Teller) and Aaron Posner, this acclaimed production showcases the inventive magic of Teller, who, with Posner, contributes a new foreword to this edition, writing about their vision of the play as a “supernatural horror thriller.” Macbeth: The DVD Edition is the perfect volume for those encountering the play for the first time and for those finding brilliant new insights into a classic.

This Edition Includes:

• DVD of the 2008 Folger Theatre/Two River Theater Company production—with over 50 minutes of special features, including interviews with the directors, actors, designers, and scholars

• Foreword by directors Teller and Aaron Posner on the staging of Macbeth

• Freshly edited text based on the 1623 First Folio

• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

• A key to the play's famous lines and phrases

• An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language in Macbeth

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books

• An essay by Susan Snyder that provides a modern perspective on the play