essay
testing... FEMINISM AND ROMAN POLANSKI'S MACBETH Peter Balderstone Copyright is retained by the author ‘Tynan Bares the Bard.’ (1) ‘And Now it’s Oh! Macbeth!’ (2) In Britain, both tabloid and broadsheet headlines relished the 1970 announcement that Playboy magazine was setting up a production company to finance a film of Macbeth, to be shot on location in Scotland. Playboy’s English contributing editor, Kenneth Tynan (who was responsible for the erotic London stage show Oh! Calcutta), had prepared a screenplay and Roman Polanski (whose wife had recently been murdered by the Manson ‘family’) was to direct. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner promised ‘more’ violence and plenty of nude scenes, ‘although Shakespeare will be in there somewhere too’.