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From: lsking@nihilspami.pantheon.yale.edu (Laura King)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Macbeth!
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 19:19:21 -0400

Louann Miller <louannm@mail.smu.edu> quoth:

> In article <3533C577.61DE3AAE@newbridge.com>, pchefurk@newbridge.com says...
>
> >> I'm not superstitious, but let's just call it "The Scottish Play."
> >
> >This I hadn't heard before. Is it unlucky to utter the name M**B***?
>
> This is supposed to be an actor's superstition (and I'm not one) but I don't
> know if it's a real fear anymore or just a running gag.

Around here ("here" being home to splendid graduate and undergraduate programs in drama), some students and faculty steadfastly avoid pronouncing the dread title of Shakespeare's 29th play. The level of irony in this aversion can be difficult to gauge; many say "The Scottish Play" with a smile and a wink yet never refer to the play by any other title. According to two faculty members I queried [1], the prohibition, which forbids the name *Macbeth* or recitation of lines from the play, is location-specific; a person may not speak the forbidden words in a theater but may freely utter them, say, in a literature class (or on a newsgroup). Still, some actors substitute "The Scottish Play" for *Macbeth* wherever they are, and the euphemism has, in some circles, become a way of distinguishing theater people from civilians.

The superstition seems to have arisen, in part, from the play's depiction of witchcraft, still a vital (though contested) belief in 1606, when the play was first performed. Like Marlowe's *Doctor Faustus* (1592?), in which staged incantations were occasionally reported to have raised real devils, *Macbeth* was believed to flirt dangerously with the Powers of Evil, bringing catastrophe down upon productions over the succeeding centuries. In fact, a staggering number of actors *has* suffered disaster during--or just after--productions of the play, including Stanislavski, Orson Welles, and Charlton Heston. Audiences and readers have also been afflicted; an 1849 performance was disrupted by a riot that killed more than 30 people, and Lincoln supposedly re-read it the night before his assassination. [2]

Those seeking rational reasons for the Scottish Curse have pointed to several features of the play as conducive to accidents: dim lighting and stage combat chief among them. Authentic productions often use broadswords, which are heavy and difficult to wield deftly, capable of inflicting considerable blunt trauma. Moreover, as Shakespeare's shortest play, *Macbeth* makes a logical last-minute addition to a company's repertoire and so can be dangerously under-rehearsed.

Many actors are not interested in rationalizing the superstition, however, as the theater is, quite predictably, the site of many rituals of aversion and induction. Acting itself seems like a form of witchcraft, in which characters are summoned and brought to life through a process that nobody fully understands, with the result that the craft is rather more hospitable to magical thinking than most other professions.

Laura "eating (voraciously) on the insane root" King

[1] Joseph Roach, Professor of Theater Studies, and Marc Robinson, Assistant Professor of Drama and Director of Theater Studies. Prof. Roach is the source of the information about broadsword combat, under-rehearsed productions, and theatrical ritual as well.

[2] See Richard Huggett, *Supernatural On Stage* for many more examples.


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