Revision

BLACK SCREEN.

TITLE CARD - REVISION

A crack of light appears and a quiet scratching noise can be heard. The sound gets louder and the light increases until a blinding light fills the screen.

FADE IN TO:

ECU CLOWN’S face. CLOWN is laughing.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. STUDENT’S BEDROOM. DAY.

The walls of the bedroom are covered with posters for plays, postcards and pictures of theatre actors, images of communist figures and clowns, stills from the theatre, etc.

On the bed are numerous books, papers, notes etc.

BEV of STUDENT lying on the bed amongst the mess.

VO (verse from Macbeth)Strange things I have in head, that will to hand; Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.

STUDENT suddenly sits up and scrabbles around looking for something. She pulls out a Dictaphone and speaks into it.

STUDENTMacbeth is a play about the collapse of man and his recovery from that collapse. In Shakespeare’s plot of events the welfare of a country is at the mercy of the well-being of the ruler.

A scream is heard off-screen. STUDENT drops the Dictaphone and rushes to the door.

CUT TO:

INT. STAIRWELL. DAY

POV of CLOWN At the bottom of the stairs looking up at STUDENT at the top. STUDENT begins to run down the stairs.

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POV STUDENT running down stairs. There s no longer a CLOWN at the bottom. STUDENT looks down. CU of WOODLOUSE on bottom step.

CUT TO:

INT. BEDROOM. DAY

STUDENT is on the bed. CU of box. Inside is the WOODLOUSE. She is trying to do some revision but is clearly having difficulty and stares blankly at the papers in front of her. CU of notes pages. Ink beings to dip down onto the paper until it makes out a vague clown’s face.

CU STUDENT’S face. There is ink all around her mouth. She looks faint and falls off the bed. There is a knock at the door. STUDENT raises her head from the floor, looks at the box. The WOODLOUSE is gone.

CUT TO:

INT. LANDING. DAY

STUDENT walks across the landing. Distant laughing is heard.

CUT TO:

INT. BEDROOM DAY.

STUDENT enters. CLOWN is sat on the end of the bed with its back to the camera. The Dictaphone is on the bed and laughing is coming from it. The laughing gets increasingly loud as CLOWN slowly turns around. STUDENT looks horrified. We see the CLOWN’S face for the first time. It is identical to the STUDENT’S. There is a knock at the door and STUDENT rushes to open it. Outside is the WOODLOUSE on the floor. STUDENT turns back to the room and CLOWN has disappeared. Off-screen laughing can be heard. STUDENT runs out of the room.

CUT TO:

INT. STAIRWELL. DAY

LOW ANGLE of STUDENT running down the stairs.

CUT TO:

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INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

CU of a chessboard. BEV of STUDENT and CLOWN sat either side of the board. We now see they have swapped clothes. CLOWN still has the clown make up on but wears STUDENT’S clothes. STUDENT is dressed in the clown outfit. CLOWN moves a chess piece and after a lengthy pause for thought, STUDENT makes her move. CU of her fingers as she picks up the WOODLOUSE and moves that to a new space of the board.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

Voice over and music over the action. STUDENT and CLWON are sat opposite each other. STUDENT is cleaning the make up off CLOWN’S face.

STUDENT (VO)The soliloquy is Macbeth’s ultimate preparation of himself before the murder. What do we expect him to contemplate? Does her think about the plan? Is he filled with fear of being exposed? What does he need to do as soon as he performs the murder?

As more make up comes off the picture and music fades out.

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