Antunes Throne Of Blood And Macbeth

TEXT, PERFORMANCE AND FILM: AN INTERMEDIAL READING OF ANTUNES FILHO´S THRONE OF BLOOD/MACBETH

Liana de Camargo Leâo (UFPR)
Mail Marques de Azevedo (UNIANDRADE)

“Shakespeare´s plays, with their inherently flexible structure and openness of style, positively invite distinctive re-interpretation on performance.”

John Russell Brown

Throne of Blood/Macbeth, the title of Brazilian director Antunes Filho´s staging of the Shakespearean tragedy, refers explicitly to Akira Kurosawa´s film, and puts into relief its intermedial characteristics. In fact, the director carried his well-known devotion to the cinema into the organization of the CPT, Centro de Pesquisa Teatral (Theatrical Research Center), ─ where the play was produced, in 1993.
Antunes has imbued the CPT with the spirit of extensive research into the aesthetics of spectacle, which he deems indispensable for the formation of actors, playwrights, designers and personnel connected with stage performance in the courses provided by the Center. The use of film as a source has been common practice at the CPT.
Hence the objective of this paper to study the references in Antunes Filho´s staging of Macbeth to Kurosawa´s film, primarily the use of filmic techniques having to do with details of setting ─ scenery, costumes, and masks ─ and performance, which stand in further intermedial relationship to the Japanese Noh theatre. A brief retrospect of Antunes Filho´s variegated career in the theatre antecedes the analysis of the elements mentioned above, and the discussion of how “the media product uses its own media-specific means to refer to a specific individual work produced in another medium” (RAJEWSKY, 2006, p. 44).
The metamorphosis of José Alves ─ artistic name of the would-be actor ─, into Antunes Filho, the metteur-en-scène, must have been received with joy by both theatrical audiences and critics, who were allowed to exchange a striving mediocre performer for today´s internationally acclaimed “poet of the scene”. From the start involved in new artistic trends, the predominant attitude of Antunes Filho has been one of rebellion and freedom of creation.
Disrespect of laws and rules is nothing new in the life of Antunes Filho who as a boy had the run of the streets of a provincial São Paulo, involved in brawls in which purple eyes and broken bones were no obstacle to his undaunted courage. And who ─ as Sebastião Milaré tells us ─ loved the cinema almost as much as he loved soccer; was very fond of the circus, and led by his theatre-loving mother, developed a lifelong passion for everything having to do with dramatic texts and theatrical performance (MILARÉ, 2011).
A first job at City Hall, where he met Osmar Rodrigues Cruz, proved to be a springboard into the world of the theatre. The lukewarm reception of his performance as an actor in Adeus, Mocidade, directed by Cruz at the Conservatório Dramático e Musical de São Paulo (São Paulo Conservatory of Drama and Music) gave him second thoughts about his acting ability, but did nothing to quench his enthusiasm for the theatre. He had found his artistic lifelong call.
At the time São Paulo was thriving with amateur theatrical enterprises, such as Alfredo Mesquita´s Experimental Group; the University Group, founded by Décio de Almeida Prado at the University of São Paulo, and Paulo Autran´s Group of Amateur Artists. The creation of the TBC, Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia (Brazilian Theater of Comedy), in 1948, to house the three groups was a first step toward professionalization, furthered by the hiring of Italian directors Luciano Salce, Adolfo Celi, Flamínio Bollini Cerri, Ruggero Jacobbi – besides the renowned Polish director Zigbiniew Ziembinski. In one way or another, the young José Alves was closely associated with all these movements and tendencies.
Still set on an acting career, his final unsuccessful attempt in 1950 – he was rejected in the selection test for the cast of Our Town, to be directed by his friend Osmar Cruz, (a matter of much leg-pulling later on in the theatrical milieu) ─ turned him definitely onto his path as director. The full measure of the energy and courage of his youth was then channeled to the achievement of his artistic objectives in staging.
His beginnings were modest with the founding of amateur groups which, nevertheless, called attention to his work, and landed him in the TBC as assistant- director to the Italian masters. From then on his curriculum has been marked mostly by loud successes (in spite of a few resounding failures), as a result of his determination “to attempt something of ambition and size” even if that meant being vulnerable to critical and even public rejection.
His rendering of Shakespeare´s comedy The Taming of the Shrew, in 1965, makes a reflection over the accumulated knowledge of social life through the centuries – woman´s emancipation, man´s new role as money-maker rather than pater familias ─ and evidences his understanding of Shakespeare´s characters as prototypes of modern man. The introduction of the contemporary, such as bottles of Coke, a game of rugby and a chorus of Beattle songs, furthermore, made the play a huge success.
By contrast, the production of Julius Caesar was a stumbling block in the director´s ascending prestige. Inappropriate locale, lack of unity in the performance and other circumstances, such as a shocking naked Julius Caesar in a coffin on the stage, drew hoots and catcalls from both the galleries and the orchestra seats, notwithstanding the famous names in the cast.
Antunes Fillho´s ensuing attempts at commercial theatre, movie-making, and theater on television were stepping stones leading to the creation of an actors´ course which originated the production of Mário de Andrade´s Macunaíma and, as a corollary, the institution of the CPT. The craftsman had gone back to the basic material of his art – the human soul─ but carrying in his luggage valuable ideas and experiences collected along his journey.
Antunes Filho´s choice of title for his play, Throne of Blood/ Macbeth, is both an explicit reference to Akira Kurosawa´s film and an illustration of his devotion to the cinema: “Oh, the two things, theatre and cinema. The dramatic expression always had me. The human adventure always touched me deeply.” “Dramatic expression” on the stage necessarily differs from dramatic expression on the screen and the analysis of an intermedial relationship between the two, established by artists who enjoy free transit in both media is challenging, to say the least.
Following primarily Irina Rajewsky´s approach to intermediality as a category for the concrete analysis of texts or other kinds of media products, this paper is structured along rather conventional lines: basically the analysis of theme, scenic space, rhythm of the action, and actors´ performance, against the backdrop of dialogue between the arts, namely Antunes Filho´s play (1993) and Kurosawa´s film (1957), hereon referred to as Throne of Blood and The Castle of the Spider´s Web, respectively.
The term “re-mediation”, as used by the critic, aptly describes the intermedial relationship between Kurosawa´s and Antunes´s versions of Macbeth, as well as their references to other arts. Although separated by nearly half a century, the theatrical and the cinematic readings of the tragedy have uncannily similar characteristics.
Brazilian scholar Sebastião Milaré´s extensive studies of Antunes Filho´s artistic activities evidence two aspects of special relevance for this analysis: his developed sense of Japanese culture and the reliance on literary sources for his plays.
, which are in fact a recreation rather than a straightforward adaptation of their sources. His appropriation of Macbeth, for instance, is not a mere transposition of Shakespeare´s text but its performance is mediated by Japanese culture and, more specifically, by Akira Kurosawa´s film The Castle of the Spider´s Web, which in its turn is a re-writing of Shakespeare´s Macbeth.
The Japanese influence on the conception of Throne of Blood/ Macbeth, ─ homage to Kurosawa´s genius ─ simultaneously gives the play a sense of exoticism and of the universal, as the Brazilian production is neither a copy of the Japanese film nor a pseudo-British montage: it is a reworking of influences and traditions. It is not the aim of this paper to explore the obvious parallels between The Castle of the Spider´s Web and the Noh theatre, which has been the object of hundreds of skilled commentators. Only a few aspects of Kurosawa´s adaptation are dealt with here in counterpoint with Antunes´s reading.
While Kurosawa eschews verbal language in favor of images and the action proper ─ visual images, action, gestures and Noh rituals are substituted for most of Shakespeare´s famous soliloquies and dialogues ─ Shakespeare´s text holds a prominent place in the Brazilian production. The bard´s authorship is highlighted in the programme of the production, where no references are made to the translator of the play. The whole project repeatedly refers to Shakespeare as the author and establishes Antunes as responsible for the adaptation. Moreover, it is undeniable that the play retells the familiar story of Macbeth and its characters, both recognizable by the spectator, in spite of the radical abridging of the text ─ the production ran for a little over an hour and forty minutes. Antunes possibly made use of several Brazilian translations in order to construct his adapted text, which is rendered in prose.
Recognizing Kurosawa´s film as an adaptation of Shakespeare´s Macbeth, unless explicitly announced in the credits, however, requires knowledge of the play´s fabula, since the characters are given different names, in accordance with the Japanese historical background and cultural tradition. Early in the development of the filmic narrative, though, similar themes inspiring Macbeth come to the fore, basically the evil effects of the lust for power on even the bravest of characters, adapted to the specific situation of civil-war strife in medieval Japan.
The capacity of the Shakespearean text to be made to fit diverse periods of the history of mankind tells of its inherent political vocation.

MACBETH´S POLITICAL VOCATION
Macbeth is Shakespeare´s sole Scottish play, and its first performance occurred at Hampton Court, for the benefit of England´s equally single Scottish king, James I, the patron of the troupe of actors, The King´s Men. Contemporary events are reflected in the play: the witch trials of 1590-1 conducted by James, who wrote a treatise on Daemonologie (1597); the Gunpowder plot; the genealogy of the kings who descended from Banquo, who was changed from the role of Macbeth´s accomplice in the murder of Duncan into that of his enemy, obviously with the intention of pleasing James IV.
Throughout the centuries, the political vocation of the play has been asserting itself in the production of numerous adaptations that fit the context of different countries and states. The background of Orson Welles´s 1936 stage production, for instance, is the revolution in the Caribbean; in Welles´s 1948 version, though, it is no longer Haiti but fascism that provides the political key to the film. Roman Polanski´s 1970 version has been linked to the violence of the Second World War and of the Cold War. Kurosawa transfers the action to a medieval Japan wrought by civil wars in the sixteenth century.
For Antunes Filho, the production of Macbeth threw light on the Brazilian political reality of the 90`s, when the people´s hope for democracy and the desire of the intelligentsia for freedom of expression were rudely shattered by the corruption of Fernando Collor de Mello´s government, the first president to be directly elected by the people, after twenty years of military rule. Collor was forced to resign office in August, 1992, formally accused of "high crimes and misdemeanors”. This does not make the production topical, although spectators with an eye on the news can easily draw parallels between the play and the Brazilian political scenario: if a people can emerge from a somber period of dictatorship, by electing its President, it might as well put on a play that condemns a tyrant.

GOOD AND EVIL
“Ambiguous oracles which, by their literal fulfillment, deceive them who confide in them” trigger Macbeth´s entanglement “in the snares of hell”. Coleridge´s critical commentaries, however, eschew the inexorability of destiny as the propelling principle of Shakespeare´s tragedy. In his view, “the poet wishes to show that the conflict of good and evil in this world can only take place by the permission of Providence, which converts the curse that individual mortals draw down on their heads into a blessing to others” (In STAUNTON, 1972, p. 2049).
Whatever interpretation may be ascribed the transformation of Macbeth from fearless warrior into ruthless assassin, it is his fierce inner struggle between good and evil that furnishes the guidelines of the hero´s characterization and commands the dénouement of his tragedy.
In spite of his torment, nevertheless, it is clear that ambition prevails and Macbeth´s decision to kill Duncan is an act of free will.
Antunes Filho´s staging enhances Macbeth´s compulsive descent into a world of shadows and darkness from the moment he lends ears to the witches´ prophecies to his death at the hands of Macduff. As in Shakespeare´s original text, Macbeth wages a losing battle against his own inner darkness, made up of remorse at having murdered his king, and of his cruel resolve to betray, deceive and kill whoever may thwart his lust for power.
The reflection on good and evil is not an isolated topic in Antunes´s theatrical productions. In his book Hierofania: o teatro segundo Antunes Filho (2010), Sebastião Milaré includes an analysis of Throne of Blood in the chapter called “Sinergia do mal” (“Evil Synergy”), in which he groups the play with two other of the director´s productions – Velha nova estória and Vereda da Salvação – both centering on the exploration of evil. Milaré sees this phase as having continuity with the coming production of Gilgamesh and Drácula e outros vampiros, both of which explore the poetics of immortality and the myth of the tree of life. Together the five plays are a meditation about the human condition as envisaged at the end of the twentieth
century.
Antunes´s familiarity with Oriental philosophies that conceptualize good and evil as complementary -─good does not exist without evil and evil does not exist without good ─ adds a further link with Kurosawa´s reading of the Shakespearean text. It is man´s task to learn how to deal both with good and evil. Coherently, Antunes aims at “discussing man in his limits” in his staging of Macbeth. (…) “The great evil, great goodness…” (…) and especially to be aware of seduction, “to fear seduction; every seduction is dangerous, especially political seduction” (ANTUNES, 1996).
“Discussing man at his limits” is the director´s primary concern and the reason for his valorization of the actor´s function as the axis of the theatrical performance.
MASKS
Kurosawa was not interested in reproducing Shakespeare´s verbal language not even to help his actors compose their characters. He chose instead to use Noh masks as models, in order to impress on his actors how to express controversial feelings of fear and anger, elation and despair, that threaten to tear apart bodies and souls.
For the composition of Lord Washizu, Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa´s favorite actor, was shown the mask of Heida, the warrior; the actress playing the Lady Asaji, was introduced to the mask of Shakumi, a beautiful woman, no longer young, who is on the brink of madness; to compose the Evil Spirit, the Yamanba mask; to compose Mik, the mask of Chûjô, the nobleman (In: CARDULLO, 2008. p. 65; 103)
The scheme below helps the visualization of Kurosawa´s strategy:

Toshiro Mifune´s dark beard and savage features add the warmth of the flesh and blood actor to his strikingly faithful reproduction of the Noh mask, in his impersonation of the fierce warrior, Lord Washizu. The complete symbiosis Isuzu Yamada-Sakaji-Lady Asaji further evidences the Japanese director´s ability. Yamada´s Lady Asaji (Lady Macbeth) is terrifyingly unemotional, in contrast to the intensity of Mifune´s performance, and enhances the dramatic impact of her influence over her husband.
Antunes will refer to the Noh masks in his protagonists´ make-up: Luiz Melo´s heavily marked dark eyebrows and moustache, his long hair topped by the helmet or the crown, are similar to the features of his counterpart, a samurai in feudal Japan; Samantha Monteiro´s composition of Lady Macbeth, whitish complexion in sharp contrast with thick black eyebrows, comes even closer to Kurosawa´s conception of the Shakespearean character.
In her commentaries about Antunes´s production, Lilian Lopondo takes special notice of the Noh influence on Samantha Monteiro´s performance: “Walking in Noh fashion, without gestures, the facial immobility of Lady Macbeth masks the determination of her spirit, noticeable through the power and impact of her voice, which seems to spew forth from her entrails” (LOPONDO, 1993).
Actually, the characterization of Lady Macbeth in Throne of Blood is exemplary of its director´s methods centered mostly on his work with the actor, from whom absolute consciousness of space is demanded; not merely of the physical concrete mise-en-scène, but of the play as a whole, both its external, visible aspect of dramatic progression, and its deeper meaning. The actor is required to develop a feeling of the character through his own body and emotions. In Sebastião Milaré´s view the actor is the vehicle for Antunes´s research into the nature of the theater. As concerns the physical space of the performance, the stage is the actor´s domain and it is his perception of space that determines the geometry of his own movements.
Thus, the key function of concrete details of stage setting, lighting and costumes is to lend support to the work of the actor, who makes use of the concrete in order to achieve transcendence.
Intermedial references in Throne of Blood to Kurosawa´s film in this study, as stated above, have to do primarily with details of setting ─ scenery, costumes, and masks ─ and their consequent influence on the actors´ performance. Costumes are especially prominent as one of the play´s “constitutional strategies that contribute to the media product’s overall signification” in the case when “the media product uses its own media-specific means (…) to refer to a specific, individual work produced in another medium” (RAJEWSKY, 2006, p. 52).

COSTUMES
Designed by artist Romero Lima, costumes are made of patches cut off velvet draperies; the use of samurai swords and headgear confirm the Japanese imprint of the production. As “constitutional strategies” costumes and character attitudes have special signification in Throne of Blood. The messenger dressed in rags, who brings bad news, barely escapes being choked to death in the explosion of Macbeth´s wrath, in spite of subserviently kneeling in front of his king. The similarly cringing attitude of a foot soldier, fully attired in the samurai fashion down to the arrows protruding from the back of his armor, ─ far from surprising in the Japanese setting ─has specific resonance in the recreation of Shakespeare´s Scottish ambience of the play, where there is no room for servility. Actors and, consequently, spectators are led to search for the deeper meaning of such discrepancies, actually the main objective of Antunes Filho´s mise-en-scène as well as of his entire conception of Throne of Blood.

Lima´s work is described by the historian and costume designer Luciana Buarque as being “neither clothes nor props; they are complete figures, live sculptures that seem to have escaped from ancient fable books, religious patterns, tarot cards”. Buarque suggests further that characters as conceived by Rogerio Lima “are not types, but archetypes. Macbeth is not a king, but all kings, with the weight and the seduction that power brings. Lady Macbeth is not merely an evil Queen, she is the serpent of Paradise, the Medusa” (BUARQUE, 1993, p. 25). Samantha Monteiro´s composition of Lady Macbeth as a serpent that tempts the hero is made into a visual icon of the serpent´s perfidy by means of her long braided hair, in itself an intermedial reference to Japanese culture and Kurosawa´s film.

The striking similarity between the images of the theatrical and the filmic rendering of Lady Macbeth provides further evidence on the intermedial relationship between Antunes Filho´s play and Kurosawa´s film.
Actually, the characterization of Lady Macbeth in Throne of Blood is exemplary of its director´s methods centered mostly on his work with the actor, from whom absolute consciousness of space is demanded; not merely of the physical concrete mise-en-scène, but of the play as a whole, both its external, visible aspect of dramatic progression, and its deeper meaning. The actor is required to develop a feeling of the character through his own body and emotions. In Sebastião Milaré´s view the actor is the vehicle for Antunes´s research into the nature of the theatre. As concerns the physical space of the performance, the stage is the actor´s domain and it is his own perception of space that determines the geometry of his movements.

SCENIC SPACE
Scenic space in Throne of Blood was conceived by one of the most influential scenographers in Brazil, J.C. Serroni, who declared that his basic idea was a “free stage for the actors” and “a scenographic framework”, a space limited by heavy walls which have the function of suggesting an atmosphere of oppression and imprisonment,─ human beings trapped like animals in a cage and as such deprived of rationality ─ rather than faithfully reproducing any particular place, Serroni aimed at a multiple and ambiguous space, one which would invite the public to imagine various universes.
And this is precisely the achievement of his scenic design which alludes to the shape of a medieval Japanese Castle, as depicted in Kurosawa´s film: huge heavy doors and gates, giving access to or surrounding large quadrangular-shaped empty spaces. The two figures below illustrate the striking similarity between Serroni´s scenery and Kurosawa´s castle.

Besides the intermidial reference to Kurosawa´s film and, consequently, to the bare scenery of the Noh theater, Serroni pays tribute to the theater in Shakespeare´s time by referring to the architecture of both the inn-yard and of the Elizabethan theater proper. Such multiple references to other stages, spaces and times free the play from period and cultural specificity and liberate the imagination of the spectators, by lending the action universal character..
The barrenness of the stage allows quick scene changes and gives the play great flexibility: people enter and exit almost simultaneously through doors on the right and left of the stage, as well as through a door at center stage. An enlarged version of the Elizabethan balcony provides two other ways in and out of the stage through a door on each side. Four large windows facing the audience, in the center of the balcony, provide frames for the intervention of frightening supernatural apparitions that remind Macbeth of his sins. A ladder on the right gives access to the second floor. At two different crucial points in the action, the actor playing Macbeth descends to the ground using a rope that hangs from the roof.
After Duncan´s murder the naked stage with its barren gray walls is used as an invisible prison or, to refer specifically to Kurosawa´s image, as an impenetrable maze: Lady Macbeth, and particularly Macbeth, haunted by their fearful thoughts run from wall to wall in nightmarish movements.
The red painted stage floor is the only striking color in the whole scenario, contrasting sharply with the grayish walls. The red color makes reference to the title of the performance as well as to the motif of blood ─ the battles that open and close the play and the violent assassination of King Duncan ─ followed by the merciless killing of whomever stood in Macbeth´s path to the throne.
LIGHTING
It is undeniable that The Castle of the Spider´s Web possesses a painterly quality. It is common knowledge that as a youth Kurosawa aspired to be a painter, and later on, as a film director, he made use of the techniques of painting, balancing each frame as a pictorial composition and displaying great understanding of contrast. The film designer, Yoshiro Muraki, reveals that mist and fog were used to contrast with black armored walls and also with the black volcanic soil as shown in the film, all contributing to a suiboku-ga or sumi-e effect. (cited in: RICHIE, 1991) In his appraisal of the film, Richard Prince also connects its aesthetics to the sumi-e: large portions of the picture are left unfilled, emptiness being a positive compositional value in the sumi-e; “striking emptiness of the spaces — the skies, the dense fog that obscures mountains and plains — is a cinematic rendition of sumi-e composition. (…) As a positive value, this pictorial and spiritual “emptiness” is set against the human world of vanity, ambition, and violence, which Kurosawa suggests is all illusion” (PRINCE, 2003).
Antunes follows Kurosawa in the creation of the contrast of dark and light, Through scenography, costumes, make-up and lighting, the Brazilian production imprints a sense of black-and-white to the spectacle, with the exception of the red floor.
Color is introduced in those scenes related to supernatural beings as, for instance, the green lighting and the candles at the scene of the banquet. In the second witches’ scene, the three eerie beings are surrounded by diffuse blue lighting, whereas a strong greenish light is projected on ghost-like apparitions at the upper-stage windows.
The conception of the three phantasmagorical sisters is borrowed from Greek mythology: they are the three Moirai, or the three Fates, ─ the Parcae in Roman mythology ─ Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, depicted as ugly old women dressed in long white robes, who command the destiny of every human being. Man´s fate is symbolized by the thread they weave which is Atropos´ task to cut, when man´s life reaches its close.
Antunes has the witches descend from the skies in a mechane to announce Macbeth´s fate. Two male actors impersonate the sisters, the third one being a dumb doll, hardly distinguishable from the living actors at first sight. The dumb doll may have functioned either as a device to save an actor from doubling up, or as a reference to the role of the third sister: cutting the thread of life. By choosing male actors, and for that matter, bearded ones, to impersonate the sisters, Antunes was bowing to the Elizabethan stage practice where male actors perform feminine roles and, also and moreover, conforming to Banquo´s description of the characters as “So wither 'd and so wild in their attire, // That look not like the inhabitants o ' the earth, // And yet are on 't? Live you? or are you aught // That man may question? You seem to understand me, // By each at once her chappy finger laying // Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, // And yet your beards forbid me to interpret // That you are so” (1.3. 39-47).
The three sisters of Greek mythology are condensed by Kurosawa into the sole image of an old hag incessantly turning the spinning wheel that weaves the destiny of Lord Washizu, as the future master of the “Castle of the Spider´s Web”. The ambiguous male/female character of the evil spirit of the forest which follows Banquo´s description is represented in the film through the mostly male tones of its computerized voice.

INTERMIDIALITY AND PERFORMANCE
Robert Stam points out that whereas “the matter of expression of literature is words, and only words, cinema is a composite language by virtue of its diverse matters of expression and thus ‘inherits’ all the art forms associated with these matters of expression” (2000, p. 35). In fact, filmic narrative can virtually absorb any kind of pre-existing discourse or expression. The richness of Kurosawa´s highly valued art lies precisely in the exploration of cinema as a multi-track medium. Thus he transposes Shakespeare´s text to the screen not as translation but as a profound transformation of the source into the savage world of medieval Japan. The alternation between battle scenes, that the medium allows, and the intimate moments that are the province of great theatrical performances forms a coherent whole that the Brazilian director equally achieves by means of the specific resources of his theatrical montage. The analysis of Shakespeare´s text, in counterpoint to Antunes Filho´s staging and Kurosawa´s film, in the dénouement of the tragedy, brings out the characteristic traits of each medium.
In the last scene of Shakespeare´s text, Madcduff presents Macbeth´s severed head to Malcolm and his victorious army:

Macduff: Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands The´usurper´s cursed head. The time is free
I see thee compassed with thy kingdom´s pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine ─ Hail King of Scotland! ( act V. 9.20-25) The printed word, “the matter of expression of literature” is a flexible abstract medium which opens the way to signification. Thus, the word “pearl” can be a metaphor for the nobility of Scotland, or a metonymic term for “crown”. Anyway, the poet chooses words that indicate the restoration of the political order.
Kurosawa´s film, on the contrary, does not bring any definite solution to the reigning political instability. An unending cycle of violence will inevitably result from Washizu´s assassination in his castle by his own men, an act which subverts the hierarchical social order. With the obliteration of distinctions that define culture, by the crossing over of boundaries between the master and his vassals, a web of mistrust, treason and violence is substituted for the harmonious living of the social group. Thus the throne, as the symbol of power, is irrevocably stained in blood. The figure below that shows Toshiro Mifune and “about one hundred arrows” is most impressive when visualized in film, to the accompaniment of the sibilant rain of arrows. It takes the resources of the medium: movement, synchronized sound, close-ups and/or panoramic shots to construct the image of the defeated fearful warrior effectively.

In Antunes´ staging, Luís Melo is shown in the cruel spastic movements of the agony that precedes death. The protagonist´s body is dragged on the stage by a rope, like a sacrificial victim. The raucous sound of the heavy-metal band, Kreator, accompanies the makeshift ritual. Evil is still rampant like an indelible stain of blood on the state itself, and, as indicated by the title of the montage, on the throne now permanently stained in blood.

Acknowledgements
This essay is the result of the approximation between university professors and theater practice. We departed from a careful viewing of the video of Antunes Filho´s Throne of Blood/ Macbeth (Brazilian Archive, MIT) and from the analysis of program notes and critical reviews of the play´s performance, kindly supplied by Rodrigo Audi from the CTP, to whom we owe deep thanks.
We owe a particular debt of gratitude to Sebastião Milaré for generously making available to us part of his still to be published research on Antunes Filho, as well as for sharing valuable ideas and commentaries on the performance of Throne of Blood.
Many thanks go to our indefatigable friend, professor Marlene Soares dos Santos, for reading parts of this text, and to professor Anna Stegh Camati, always ready with advice and encouragement.

REFERENCES
ANTUNES FILHO. Entrevista do encenador (Interview with Director) ao Diário de São Paulo, 04 de dezembro de 1973 (Dec, 04, 1973).
ANTUNES FILHO, Entrevista (Interview). Jornal Estado de São Paulo, 14 de agosto de 1996 (August, 14, 1996).
BROWN, John Russell. “Shakespeare, Theatre and Cultural Politics.” In: WELLS, Stanley (ed.) Shakespeare Survey n. 48, 1995.

CARDULLO, Bert (ed.). Akira Kurosawa: Interviews. University Press of Mississipi, 2008.

MANVELL, Roger. Shakespeare and the Film. New York, 1971.
MILARÉ, Sebastião. Antunes Filho e a dimensão utópica. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1994.
___________ “Convergência Brasil-Japão no Teatro”. Revista USP n. 27, set./nov. 1995.
___________ Hierofania: o teatro segundo Antunes Filho. São Paulo: Edições SESC São Paulo, 2010.
____________ “Primeiros tempos” In:______ . Poeta da Cena, (2011, forthcoming).
RAJEWSKY, Irina.” Intermediality, Intertextuality and Remediation: a Literary Perspective on Intermediality.” Intermédialités, n. 6, p. 43-61, Autumn 2006.
SHAKESPEARE, W. Macbeth. Ed. Kenneth Muir. Arden Shakespeare; 2nd ed, 1997.
STAM, Robert & MILLER, Toby (Eds.). Film and Theory. An Anthology. Maiden Ms: Blackwell, 2000.
STAUNTON, Howard (ed.).The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare. The Complete Works. Annotated. New York: Gramercy Books, 1972.