The Scottish Play
In the theatre and even without, you are not supposed to
mention the dreaded
Scottish play by name. Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth. It is considered extremely
unlucky to mention the name or even quote from its text. Bad luck will befall
you and any production you are associated with. Instead, you should refer to It
as “the Scottish Play” or “Mr and Mrs M”.
The theatre is cluttered with superstition ranging from the taboo against
whistling backstage to uttering the epithet “break a leg” for good luck. But
there is one superstition that sends shivers up the spine of even the most
hardened theatre practitioner, the curse of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Such strong taboos surround this play that I am extremely careful about
mentioning the name myself, especially in the theatre itself.
In my investigation into this myth I have learned that the 390+ year history of
the play is replete with tragic incidents from swordplay to cerebral aneurysms.
Be forewarned!
It seems that the play has been plagued from the beginning. We have evidence
from John Aubrey, a noted literary figure, that Hal Berridge, the boy who was to
play Lady Macbeth, became sick (and subsequently died) on the night of the first
performance. Aubrey, who knew some of the king’s acting company in their old
age, reports that Shakespeare played the part himself.
Next follows a serious historical bit of education, so pay close attention:
E.K. Chambers suggests in the Arden edition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that the
play, Macbeth, was produced on the occasion of the visit of the King of Denmark
to England in July 1606. There is textural evidence to support this conjecture,
including references to the ship “Tiger” and the porters allusion to the
agricultural conditions of 1606 when prices were low despite an abundant harvest
, and also references to “the equivocator”; the Jesuit priest Henry Garnet who
used the doctrine in the defence of treason in the spring of 1606 for complicity
in the gunpowder plot, discovered in November, 1605.
King James I believed in witchcraft and wrote the book Demonologie (1597) to
refute Reginald Scott’s book against the belief in witches. Much of the
witchlore in the play may be another factor contributing to the curse since
Shakespeare may have used material from the accounts of Scottish witch trials
published in the 1590’s.
It is also believed in some circles that Shakespeare used an actual witchcraft
incantation in the text of the play, thus cursing the play as it was written.
James I is believed to have recognised this curse and banned the play from being
performed until after his death in 1610.
Only one scene in the play is set in daylight, so this may account for some of
the accidents that have been reported. But there are too numerous accidents for
it all to be nothing but coincidence. There have been many noted actors who have
suffered or seen the Macbeth curse in action. Included in this list are; the
Restoration actress Mrs. Siddons, Stanislavski, Sybil Thorndyke, Margaret
Webster, Dame Judith Anderson, Paul Scofield, Orson Wells, Charlton Heston, and
Harold Norman. Norman died a month after being stabbed in the swordfight that
ends the play. The Astor Place riot of 1849 occurred during a performance of the
‘play associated with Scotland’. Thirty-one people were killed and 150 wounded
as fans of the American actor Edwin Forrest rioted against William Macready’s
appearance in ‘the Scottish play’ in a display of anti-English sentiment in the
Bowery in New York. It was Abraham Lincoln’s favourite play and he was reading
it the night before he was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s
theatre. Laurence Olivier barely missed severe injury when a stage weight
crashed on to the back-stage seat he had left only moments before in a
production at the Old Vic in 1937 that had already experienced an extraordinary
run of bad luck: The opening was postponed when the director and the actor
playing lady Macduff were in a traffic accident. The theatre’s grande dame
Lilian Baylis died on the day of the dress rehearsal. When the play finally
opened late Lilian Baylis’ portrait fell off the lobby wall.
There are numerous stories of cast members who have chanted “all hail Macbeth”
in defiance of the curse, only to have storms disrupt their performance and
damage the theatre building.
Adam Verseni relates, in Arden’s Macbeth, that while playing Angus in a
production, he “watched from offstage while the actor playing Macbeth suffered
two aneurysms outside the brain as he was delivering the dagger speech. It was
the best performance he ever delivered, but he spent the rest of his life in
hospital.”
When Peter Hall directed Paul Scofield and Vivien Merchant at Stratford in 1967,
he urged the cast to put aside all thoughts of bad luck. He collapsed with
shingles shortly after. He recovered, but not everyone is as lucky. There have
been reports of skull fractures from falls, stage combat injuries and even
misfortune that follows casual recitation of lines from the Scottish play in or
even near the vicinity of any theatre.
Although the Scottish play is Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy (2108 lines), there
are more swordfights, stabbings and murders than any of his other plays. Theatre
historian Thomas A. Pallen, who is credited with creating a compendium of
theatrical references, suggests that since the Scottish play is usually
performed under low light levels to accommodate all of the heath scenes and
night time banquets, the dismal lighting makes accidents more likely, resulting
in a higher incidence of on-stage injuries. But this is a logical possible
explanation of some of the misfortune, and who would want to tempt fate by
blaming all “incidents” on poor lighting?
There are ways to break the curse, although none are foolproof. One involves
turning around three times, spitting and quoting from The Merchant of Venice;
“Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you.” The other that I have wandered
across is similar. If you utter the name of “that play” you must leave the
stage, turn round three times, knock, and beg to be re-admitted. Then you need
to quote from Hamlet; “Angels and Ministers of Grace defend us.”
Good luck with the above…
Me? I will always be vigilant in guarding my speech when discussing the play in
or near a theatre; even more so after writing this.