All of the lights will go out so that the stage is completely dark. A white light will come on a follow on the first of the eight kings who will walk on to the stage. The first king´s coat-of-arms will be vaguely familiar to the audience but as each king comes on stage with his own spotlight it will be obvious where this familiarity comes from. The first king will the furthest descendant from Banquo who will come on stage at the very end and as time has gone by the Banquo coat-of-arms will have changed through marriage etc… Therefore as the kings slowly come on stage the royal colours the kings wear will become more and more recognisable. This will be the first sign that everything is not how it seems to be spotted by Macbeth. As the first king enters Macbeth will show signs of recognition (he will have his own dimmed spotlight on him now) and as more of the kings arrive Macbeth will become more and more agitated. He will begin to slowly pace across the stage, looking at each king in turn with interest and horror. At time he will need to face the audience so that it is apparent to those watching how worried Macbeth now is. He will see the reflections of all of the kings in the mirror that the final one will bring out and the awful truth will begin to dawn on him. When the ghost of Banquo arrives Macbeth will be very angry with the Witches and his soliloquy will become louder and louder as the kings appear until all of them are standing in front of him. They will stay for a few seconds before all of the lights with the exception of Macbeth´s go out. The actors playing the kings and Banquo will rush off stage so that the ambient lighting can come back on after only a few seconds, giving the impression that the kings have totally vanished. Macbeth will shout the final line of the soliloquy (“…What, is this so?”) during the darkness (to hide the noises created by the exiting actors) in anger at the witches for showing him this apparition which is not what he expected, or wished to see.
The Witches will now begin to smile and look pleased with their work. They will begin to mock Macbeth with the song they will sing and the first Witch praises Macbeth as a ‘great king´ in a voice of mock worship. Once more the audience will realise that Macbeth has no power over these creatures and how they are the real evil in the play. Macbeth is simply an unfortunate puppet who has been picked out. The Witches dance and vanish (the lights will go out again). When the lights come back on they will be noticeably brighter due to the departure of the Witches. Macbeth will be shouting his lines about how the Witches have abandoned him when Lennox enters. Lennox will be accompanied by a man wearing the colours of Macbeth. He will, however be muddy and look tiered out. In his hand he will be carrying a large leather bag. This man will be the messenger that Lennox will inform Macbeth about. Macbeth will still have his dim spotlight on him but Lennox will have a bright light, his uniform/armour will be clean and shining, showing that Lennox has not fallen from grace as Macbeth so clearly has. Lennox will inform Macbeth of the flight of Macduff to England which will lead to Macbeth´s final soliloquy of this scene. During this Macbeth will speak of his plans to murder Macduff. He will pace around the front stage whilst Lennox walks towards the back of the stage to talk with the messenger. Macbeth should look flustered and angry, he should look as if he has lost all sanity and means of rational thought, showing the audience that in this one scene Macbeth has gone from a murderer to a madman. The spotlight will be put out permanently. There is no way back for Macbeth now.