Sara Brenes Akerman is a graduate student of literature in the Department of English at Washington University in St. Louis. Akerman’s dissertation, provisionally titled “Transcending the Ideology of Print: Shakespeare, Originality, and Performance,” explores twentieth-century Shakespeare performances in which the textual interpretation of a given play comes into conflict with the enacted performance.
No matter how many times one revisits the story, it is always surprising how quickly Macbeth turns from loyal servant to regicide. All it takes is the suggestion that it is meant to be, that in some sense it has already happened, for him to jump into action and do the unthinkable.