#14 Shakespeare Research

Is Shakespeare’s’ Macbeth Really Cursed?

Ask anyone in theater what the “Scottish play” is and they will immediately know what you are talking about. It’s the play Macbeth, by Shakespeare. Supposedly the play is cursed, so cursed that you can’t even say the name Macbeth in the theater without bad thing happening to you. Is this true?

To begin, one can look to the actual plot of the play, which is pretty dark. There is murder, deceit, evil and witchcraft all contained in this short play. It was originally performed for King James, who had written a book on how to detect witches. Knowing this, Shakespeare decided to put witchcraft into his play that he was performing for King James. He used actual black magic in one of the scenes of the play. There were witches (actors) dancing around a black cauldron, yelling and throwing things into the cauldron. However, the real witches weren’t very happy that Shakespeare exposed their witchcraft practices so they cast a spell on the play. Supposedly the spell has never been broken and still exists today.

What is the spell? According to Andrew Mann in his analysis The Curse of Macbeth, he states “Supposedly, saying the name "Macbeth" inside a theater will bring bad luck to the play and anyone acting in it. The only exception is when the word is spoken as a line in the play.” So assuming that this is true, what happens if you accidentally slip up and say the dreaded name? You need to act fast to ward off the curse! Again, according to Andrew Mann, he states in his analysis “In order to reverse the bad luck, the person who uttered the word must exit the theater, spin around three times saying a profanity, and then ask for permission to return inside. There are several other variations of this ritual that involve spitting over your shoulders or simply letting out a stream of cuss words. Some say that you must repeat the words "Thrice around the circle bound, Evil sink into the ground," or you can turn to Will himself for assistance and cleanse the air with a quotation from Hamlet.” So according to legend you better do something or you will be doomed to bad luck. Most actors in theater are aware of this and that is why the play Macbeth is referred to as the “Scottish play”.

So is this true? Have there been any instances where bad things have happened to actors that dared to speak the name Macbeth? Surely there would be many incidents documented if the legend were true. Well, as a matter of fact, there are many examples. Supposedly, Shakespeare himself had to perform the role of Lady Macbeth because the actor who was cast in that role suddenly got very ill and died. There are more cases that have been documented. According to Samantha Mann in her article Superstition and Macbeth: Curse of the Scottish Play, she has found the following real cases. “One of these most famous cases of real life tragedy striking a production of Macbeth occurred at New York's Astor Place, in 1849, when 31 people were killed when a full-scale riot broke out in the theatre”. She goes on with other examples from her article, “The curse of the play is said to have struck the legendary Laurence Olivier, when he was nearly hit by a stage weight, in 1937. The director and an actress, of the same production, were involved in a car accident on their way to the theatre. The production was hit with further bad luck when the theatre manager was killed by a heart attack during the dress rehearsal and, if that weren’t enough, Olivier’s sword broke during one of the fight scenes and ended up flying into the audience, hitting a man who later also had a heart attack”.

So what do you think? I think these little ‘incidents’ are pretty convincing! The fact that many actors refuse to say the name Macbeth implies that many in the theater company agree with me. If I were an actress I don’t think I would throw caution to the wind and take my chances. I would try not to repeat the name, and if I did on accident, I would quickly learn the art of spitting over my shoulder! I believe it’s better to be safe than sorry. So indeed, the curse lives on.

Lauren

Works Cited

Markham, Samantha. “Superstition and Macbeth: The Curse of The Scottish Play” Suite 101. 29 October 2009. Web. 24 May 2010. http://shakespeareantheatre.suite101.com/article.cfm/superstition_and_macbeth#i xzz0ouY5iJJ8

Mann, Andrew. “The Curse of Macbeth.” The Lone Conspirators. Web. 24 May 2010.

http://home.flash.net/~manniac/macb.htm