Ambition, Greed and Madness

Shawn and I took in a production of Lady M, playing at the UI Theatre Mainstage today.  It's the tragic story of Shakespeare's Macbeth, but through the eyes of his wife.  It details how she ruthlessly pushed and bullied and insulted her husband to go after the throne as she grappled with her childlessness and pursued the role of Queen of Scotland...and then the play followed her descent as she struggled with the guilt and shame of all they had done (e.g. murder many times over).  In this adaptation, Lady M dies, not off stage, but center stage with blood on her hands and gown.  The play closes with a remorseful (and dead) Macbeth, reciting these powerful and famous lines:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. — Macbeth

The only cure for all that heaviness was champagne and chocolate cake.