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 Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:54 am
As some of you may know, it's extreme bad luck to say Macbeth before or during a performance. Does anyone know where this superstition originated from?
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:39 am
I'm pretty sure it comes from the tale that Shakespeare stole the Macbeth story from three witches like the ones in the play, and they were so angry that they exacted their revenge by cursing the very name of the play. I'm not sure, though. I'm just studying it in English right now. rolleyes
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 12:28 pm
Well, to me the only logic behind it would be someone looked at it's track record and was like "this isn't good. the play must be cursed" and, being as supersticious as we theatre people are, we then refused to say the name due to the evil cursed life it would bring.
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Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 4:48 am
I heard it was because everytime someone said Macbeth, something bad backstage would happen in some performances [set pieces falling apart, lights breaking, etc.].
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High-functioning Werewolf
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Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:55 am
I always thought it was because The Scottish Play was so full of dangerous stunts. Audiences tend to like that sort of thing and if a playhouse put it on it meant that they were probably just about bankrupt because it's a b***h and a half to put on. A neighboring high school district of mine put it on and a kid got run through. With a prop sword. No fun....
As for traditions of how to break said curse, if we're not in production, you send whoever said it outside the theatre, spin them around three times and then make them spit on the ground. If we're in production, we do the same thing, except with everybody who HEARD it.
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Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:28 pm
i think that how the 3 witches cursed it is actually how the superstition started... and and we do the going outside, spinning, and spitting ( we also repeat the dirtyest thing we know of)
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:06 pm
As do we...
One time, my friend, who doesn't believe in 'that word', said it over and over in defiance. She had an iron framework fall and barely missed her head. (It grazed the side of her head).
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Once in the last show I was in, (Midsummer,) Me and the other tradesmen, (( I played Quince,)) before we begin our show, we had three girls perform the witches scene from that play, and she would announce it. Me and my other friend had bben knocking on wood for her each day but on the last show, she said it and we knocked on wood and not a split second later, this big old booster seat that had been sitting up on the closet backstage fell off there with a screech and two loud thumps, while the stage entrance was cracked. Me and my friends were like, " It's the cusre!!!!" no lie.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:29 pm
I just got back from a performance myself, and terrible things had been happening, all because our director said that the "M" word was just a joke. Costumes ripped in the middle of the play, people missed cues, our stage manager almost suffucated, no lie. sad
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:57 pm
Someone said it during the last show i was in(oklahoma!) and we had the worst night ever! cues were missed, costumes ripped, a girl sprained her ankle, tech needs went wrong, it was godawful!
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:21 pm
We just had our performance of Candy Land. "Gloppy" the chocolate monster said...it...and the whole set went crashing. I also scrapped my knees after falling face flat into Gloppy's chocolate river. sweatdrop
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 6:00 pm
I learned this in high school actually when I was studying the play in English.
The curse started from the three witches that Shakespeare apparently stole the play from. Since then it has a history of bad things happening during productions of it. Actors getting hurt, set peices breaking, even actor deaths. The truth in the matter is no longer really known because it's grown from more of a fact that something once happened during a production to the myth that if you say the name Macbeth in a theatre, something bad is going to happen.
It's just an old theatre superstision. Right up there with saying 'break a leg' instead of 'good luck' on opening night and having a ghost light on at all times to keep your theatre ghosts happy.
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WickedElphie Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:15 pm
I learned that if you say the M-word then you spin three times wittershins (counterclockwise) and say a line from any other Shakespeare play, mostly "Angels and Ministers of Grace, defend us!".
On a slightly different note:
At my high school, for one of our plays the auditorium was being remodeled, so we had to use the stage in the drama classroom. The only problem was that the drama classroom was also an English classroom, and this English class was studying Macbeth for the last three weeks of rehearsal. To top it off several actors and stage hands (me included) were in said English class and had to do their homework backstage due to time constraints. It was amusing trying to ask and answer questions about the play with out saying the M-word. I remember trying to talk about "Lord and Lady MacScottish-Play" while keeping a strait face.
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Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 5:43 am
Ok, Shakespeare didn't steal the idea from witches. But the scene with the witches supposedly angered a witch or some witches and the play was cursed. Because I think he took the actual words that they spoke while making spells or something like that.
People in Shakespeare's day always stole ideas for plays. Remember, none of his plays are original in story, only in content -- the way he wrote it.
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Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 5:51 pm
I have to admit, the drama people in my school aren't that superstitious about things, the only people in the theatr company there that acctually flip out when the dreaded m word is uttered are the stage manager and myself, but its kinda become replaced by the 'z word' or our pesky lighting designer's name which has the same effect since every time he shows up something always goes horribly wrong. ^^''
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