"The Scottish Play"

[the.hard.part]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 7:32pm

i'm writing a research paper on the strange history of Macbeth, Macbeth's taboos and why you don't say that name in theatres... anyone know where i could get some information about this besides the internet I need book sources, anything you've read in the past. Thank you

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 7:35pm

interesting topic. I'd love to read your essay when you are done!

[jimmirae]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 8:28pm

I'll have to check... but I know the sources are out there, Having done this play in 2 great runs - I think a lot of the old stuff that was "urban legend" came from Gielgud actually. You might try to check him first.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 8:57pm

First off, the historical Macbeth wasn't a cruel guy. Yes, he did kill Duncan, but that was on a battlefield. History indicates that Duncan was the tyrant.

Anyhow, why is the play considered bad luck:

It is set in Scotland and the sets are often angled sharply to suggest the ruggedness of the terrain. Angled sets= trouble for actors.

Scotland has lots of fog and mist. Fog machines=trouble for actors.

The mood is dark, so the lighting is dim. Dim lighting=trouble for actors.

There are witches who often fly or use trap doors. Flying rigs/trap doors=trouble for actors.

There are often lighted candles on stage. In fact Lady Macbeth carries one in her sleepwalking scene. Lighted flames=fires.

Get the picture?

PM me if you want my first hand account of the man who committed suicide at a matinee of MACBETH at the Metropolitan Opera.

[Chloe]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 9:29pm

I'm not sure how germane this will be to your research, but you might want to read the mystery writer Ngaio Marsh's book Light Thickens, about an English company performing the play. Aside from writing mysteries, she worked in the theater and includes many fascinating details, as well as stuff about the superstitions. She wrote a couple of other stories with a theatrical milieu also, Killer Dolphin and A Night at the Vulcan.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 9:42pm

Dollypop is right: most of the "bad luck" that surrounds MACBETH is because it's a play that demands a lot of effects, and was originally written for the candle-lit private playhouses, not the open-air public theatres.

Another source of superstition is, of course, the witches. Any Elizabethan/Jacobean play that had occult elements were always regarded with a bit of fear and dismay by a Devil-fearing audience, since chants, potions and spells are being made onstage (another example is Marlowe's DOCTOR FAUSTUS).