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Macbeth is indeed cursed: not by any magic spells or angry ghosts, but rather, it's cursed by generations of actors who have developed an irrational fear of an amazing play. It does indeed have a reputation as being an unlucky play which will bring woe to its actors, for the reason previously mentioned -- that the witches' "eye of newt and toe of frog" speech was actually taken from a compendium of magical spells, thus meaning that an actor casts a spell whenever the speech is read. Over time, this superstition extended to the name of the play itself. It's true that there have been unlucky stage accidents during the production of Macbeth. It's also worth noting that over the hundreds of years it's been performed, the overwhelming majority were conducted without any horrific mishaps whatsoever. |
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First, let me say that I agree with all you've written. And those irrational fears can still carry an enormous amount of weight and result in practices adhered to by many actors today. It has been my experience that quite a few actors who know about these things, though they might dismiss them as overly superstitious, are content to observe them nonetheless. Quoting any passages from the play, or even saying the name of the title character, in a theatre where it's not actually being performed, for instance, is "verboten". A case in point occurred when I was performing in a production of "Assassins". (I can't refrain from noting how appropriate to the subject that title is.) An actor was using one of Macbeth's speeches backstage as a vocal warm-up. He got through enough of it (two or three lines) for everyone to recognize it for what it was. To say he was shouted down by the entire cast is an understatement. Some even felt justified in instructing him as to his gross ignorance of "theatrical protocol". I feel that I must note that the only instance of a serious case of walking pneumonia I've ever contracted while doing a play began the day of the final performance, when I was playing the role of...The Scottish King Himself...just saying... ;-) However, I did have occasion to play the role again without incident. |
