After some years of setbacks, Caroline Burns Cooke took to the stage at Dundee Fringe with her new work, Gruoch: Lady Macbeth, written for her by David Calcutt.
Intense physicality and emotional turmoil permeate Cooke’s performance
Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth is rooted in the historically discredited Holinshed’s Chronicles, of 1587 and is largely a woman of fiction. Gruoch has many more facets to her than Shakespeare’s blood-stained woman although this impassioned production is perhaps equally speculative and imaginative.
Gruoch’s background is complex and I’m indebted to Kate Braithwaite, writing in The History of Royal Women for unravelling her story.
Gruoch hailed from Scottish nobility, being related to King Malcolm II. Her brother had a claim to the throne, but Malcolm intended his grandson, Duncan, to be his successor. She married Macbeth’s cousin, Gillacomgain, and they had a son, Lulach. Macbeth was the son of King Finlay who ruled the Kingdom of Murray. He had become King even though he had an older brother, one of whose two sons was Gillacomgain. These brothers assassinated their uncle and took the throne, while Macbeth fled the land. While absent Macbeth led an undercover operation that garnered support among disaffected subjects of Gillacomgain, and culminated in his return to Moray where he killed Gillacomgain and his supporters.
The next turn of events sees Gruoch marry Macbeth, seemingly setting aside any loathing she might have felt towards him for murdering her husband. The move guaranteed her own safety and that of Lulach and provided a royal step-father for him, enhancing his claim to the throne of Moray in addition to that of Scotland. Meanwhile her brother had been murdered, probably by Malcolm II, in order to clear the way for Duncan’s succession, which occurred shortly after his father’s death at the battle fought against Macbeth at Glamis. In Duncan’s later invasion into Moray he too was killed, possibly by Macbeth. His death while a guest in Macbeth’s castle is a Shakesperian invention as is the idea that Macbeth had usurped the throne he recived by public acclamation He enjoyed a 17-year rule with Gruoch by his side, despite having no children of their own.
In 1057 Macbeth abdicated in favour Lulach and Gruoch’s plan - if that’s what she had - came to fruition. Her joy was short-lived, however. Lulach was killed the following year in a battle against Malcolm’s forces. Lulach’s son was a child, but Macbeth took up arms against Malcolm to defend his right to the throne, but was defeated at Lumphanan in August 1058. Macbeth was buried in the royal cemetery on Iona, but there are no records of Gruoch’s last days.
Intense physicality and emotional turmoil permeate Cooke’s performance that is full of the inner strength, tinged with an element of madness, that Gruoch must have possessed to endure her life. The historical record suggests a woman who proceeded calmly through life accepting her lot and behaving subserviently to the powerful men who surrounded her. Cooke, on other hand, explores what she imagines might have been hidden beneath the surface. She has a mantra of “Daughter, Good Wife, Crone” that sums up her life, the last word indicating her current condition as she gives way to anger, bitterness, resentment and vengeance.
She describes the monodrama as “a feminist, myth-centred examination of the bereaved and abused girl who became Lady Macbeth as an act of revenge for the death of her father”. Hence her visceral performance of a woman who nevertheless had a degree of logic and rationality for her actions.
