Professor Butter Beard and Macbeth’s Three Witches
First Witch: When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch: When the hurly-burly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.
Third Witch: That will be ere the set of sun.
First Witch: Where the place?
Second Witch: Upon the heath.
Third Witch: There to meet with Macbeth.
- William Shakespeare, “Macbeth” (Act 1 Scene 1)
For the past eight weeks, I have been consumed by witches. They wove their spell over me during auditions and then danced and shrieked their way into my soul throughout the rehearsal process. They initially presented themselves as shy smiling humans, but as their inhibitions and masks dissolved, they morphed into sinister crows, menacing attendants, bloody murderers, deeply gashed soldiers, competitive porters and monstrous puppeteers. They caw, mime, tease, mimic and chatter in their own other-worldly language, playing us in their chess game of fools.
The “Three Witches,” also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare's shortest play “Macbeth” written in 1606. Shakespeare's witches are prophets who hail Macbeth early in the play, predict his ascent to kingship and eventually manipulate the devil he becomes toward his demise. Modern scholars believe their origin lies in “Holinshed's Chronicles” (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland. And other possible sources, aside from Shakespeare, include British folklore, contemporary treatises on witchcraft as King James VI of Scotland's “Daemonologie,” the “Witch of Endor” from the Christian Bible, the “Valkyries” of Norse mythology, and ancient classical myths of the Fates: the Greek “Moirai” and the Roman “Parcae.”
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth at a time when interest in witchcraft bordered on hysteria. Witches were blamed for causing illness, death and disaster, and were thought to punish their enemies by giving them nightmares, making their crops fail and their animals sicken. These ethereal beings were thought to allow the Devil to suckle from them in the form of an animal, such as “Graymalkin” and “Paddock,” the grey cat and the toad mentioned by the Witches in Act 1, Scene 1. Those who were convicted were often tortured, their trials reported in grisly detail in pamphlets that circulated in the hundreds. Often, those accused of witchcraft lived on the edges of society: they were old, poor and unprotected, and were therefore easy to blame.
King James VI of Scotland was deeply concerned about the threat posed by these beings. He believed that a group of witches had tried to kill him by drowning him while he was at sea (a curse echoed here by Shakespeare’s “First Witch”). During his reign, thousands of people in Scotland were put on trial for witchcraft. In 1604, under his rule as king of England and Wales, witchcraft was made a capital offence, meaning that anyone who was found guilty of being a witch could be executed. When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606, then, he knew that his audience would have felt a mixture of fear and fascination for the three “weird sisters,” their imaginations captivated by the mysterious meeting on the desolate heath with which the play begins.
The Macbeth witches have been portrayed for centuries by directors as their own personal nightmares brought alive on the stage and screen. In Rupert Goold’s 2010 film version of the play, starring Patrick Stewart as Macbeth, the Witches appear first as nurses in a nightmarish hospital, ripping out the heart of the wounded soldier. In Justin Kurzel’s 2015 production, starring Michael Fassbender as Macbeth, the witches are more conventional, looming through the mist at the edge of the battlefield and encircling Macbeth before greeting him in whispered voices. And, in Joel Coen's 2021 film “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” British actress Kathryn Hunter plays all three witches. Though mostly depicted as three personalities inside a single body, there are several instances where the witch divides into three distinct figures. Hunter worked extensively with Coen to develop a physicality for the witches, describing them as intermediate forms, in between human women and crows (crows are also frequently shown flying through scenes in the film).
Our Stone Church Players witches wickedly manipulate the entire current production, watching and reacting from their own raised scaffolding and stepping into pivotal roles to ensure their masterplan weaves together towards the destruction of the king. They, like fire smoke, seeped into my kitchen as I was baking this week. My traditional focaccia suddenly was transformed with sautéed forest mushrooms dancing with onions that were slowly caramelized over an open flame, and then sparked with a flash of fresh lemon and dashes of richly dark balsamic vinegar. The masterful flavors mingle and gently whisper, “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.”
Sautéed Mushroom and Caramelized Onion Focaccia
One Half-Sheet Pan (13” by 18”) Focaccia
Dough:
2 ¾ cup warm water (or I use 2 ¼ cup water and ½ cup of my sourdough starter)
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
4 tsp active dry yeast
3 ½ cups bread flour
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp fine sea salt
Zest of one large lemon (save the lemon to squeeze over the focaccia when you remove it from the oven)
1/3 cup good olive oil – plus more for preparing the dough to bake and finishing
Flaky sea salt (to taste)
Topping:
2 medium yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
3 medium red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 quart mixed fresh mushrooms, thickly sliced
8 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, lightly chopped
Fine sea salt and black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1) In a 4-cup glass measuring cup, stir together the warm water and the sugar. Sprinkle the yeast over the mix and then whisk until yeast is fully dissolved. Set aside to bloom for five minutes.
2) In a standing mixer, whisk together the two flours, salt and lemon zest. Stir the oil into the bloomed yeast mixture and then slowly pour the wet into the dry with the mixer on low. When the mixture starts to gather into a dough, increase the speed to medium and mix for 4-5 minutes until you have a smooth, soft and silky dough.
3) Oil a large glass bowl and turn the dough into the bowl, turning the dough to make sure it is fully covered with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until doubled in volume (about 45 minutes).
4) In a cast iron skillet, slowly cook, over medium high heat, the thinly sliced onion in 5 Tbsp of the unsalted butter until the onions are very soft and caramelized. Remove the onions to a medium bowl. Add the remaining 3 Tbsp of butter to the skillet and sauté the mushroom until they just give up about half of their moisture but still remain firm. Add the cooked mushrooms to the onions, folding them together. Add the fresh thyme leaves, the balsamic vinegar, and then salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
5) Line your baking sheet with parchment paper and turn the dough onto the pan. Gently stretch the dough to evenly fill the pan. Use your fingers and deeply dimple the dough all over. Pour another 3-4 Tbsp of oil over the dough and evenly spread it over the dough with your hands. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes while your oven heats to 450 degrees.
6) Unwrap the dough. Dimple the top with your finger again. Evenly spread the mushroom/onion mixture over the dough, pressing it into the dough with your fingers. Sprinkle the top generously with flakey sea salt and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Squeeze the lemon over the hot focaccia and brush with even more olive oil. Transfer the focaccia to a wire rack and leave to cool.
