I'm having a bit of a problem here... Yesterday, I was watching 'The Simpsons', and it was the episode about London, where they meet Ian McKellen and there is a parody of the superstition of actors about Macbeth, the don't-mention-the-name-or-something-bad-will-happen-thing. Now, where have I read about that before? Jasper Fforde? Terry Pratchett? Or am I just remembering the Simpsons-episode from long ago :-)?
If anybody can, thanks for helping me out!
Greetings,
Jo

It is common I believe. Monty Python may have mentioned it though.

I've seen it mentioned a number of times--I got yelled at by an actor in my school's theatre for saying the name. The rule, as I know it, is that you can't say the name "Macbeth" while inside a theatre (unless you're performing the play), because the play is cursed. I know the "curse" is mentioned in the Reduced Shakespeare Company's Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), and also fforumite Lady Teaspoon is named after it, in a roundabout way. Actually, that may be where you heard of it--she was explaining in some thread that she used to go by "Lady Macbeth", but then people warned her that she should call it the Scottish play instead, so she became Lady The-Scottish-Play, or Lady TSP for short. Hence, Lady Teaspoon. (Where IS Lady Teaspoon these days, anyway?)

Actors are nearly as superstitious as sailors, saying "break a leg" & all that...

I'd forgotten about that-
but it may be the reason that TOOTHLESS decided to name their song about Macbeth after the guy in the band that wrote it-
now I'll always wonder...

If you're throughly confused & curious,
click on MySpace below & look for the song on my profile...

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Signature or shameless self-promotion?
You decide:

[www.myspace.com]

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(Fond memories of the Blackadder episode...)

"hot potato, off his drawers, pluck to make amends.."

Yes!!!! Must be Blackadder...I bought and watched the whole DVD set a couple of months ago. Thanks, Kitten! Saw the Reduced Shakespeare Company, too, but that was years ago... *wishes she could see them again*.
Thank you all for helping!
Jo

Josie Wrote:
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*wishes she could see
> them again*.



I dont know if you knew about this already but there is a Reduced Shakespeare Company DVD

[www.blockbuster.com]

Hope that helps!

Gavin

Yup, it's a common thing. Blackadder has it, Pratchett mentions that the story about Lord Felmut gets known as the Lancre play (I believe).

I though this was down to the fact that The Scottish Play was actually a popular crowd pleaser that performers got tired of doing, and so it was dark times indeed if they fell back on The Scottish Play. This may have morphed into a curse.

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Turn the silliness to eleven!

Sounds logical.
I'd love to get the Reduced Shakespeare Company DVD, but it's a region 1...no use for my German dvd-player *sighs*.

From what I remember from studying it, there was a theory that Shakespeare included the curses / spells of real witches. In retaliation they cursed the production, and it is believed that any mention of the name will bring the curse on to the house where it is being played.
The other theory is that MacBeth is indeed a crowd-puller. When a production company was in trouble they would roll-out old faithful to try to save their falling fortunes. No doubt not all of them made it! Guilt by association - this was the last production of ####.

Wasn't wearing green also bad? Goodness knows why!

It's a popular superstition in Britain anyway - dates back a long way. Various theories why: it was the colour of the fairies and if you wore it they could steal you away; in the theatre dating back to the fact that when performing outdoors wearing green doesn't exactly make you stand out; and (in my case) it was my first school uniform and hardly anyone likes wearing the colour of their school uniform after being forced into it for all those years...

The Shakespeare thing is meant to be because he actually incorporated real witchcraft into the play, and it's the spells themselves that are meant to cause trouble in productions of it. You don't name the thing you fear in case it draws attention to you - the nature of superstition, really.

Dahling! You don't wear it because it's sooooo last season!

This title reminds me: you all just lost.

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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Dahling I am last season!

MartinB, Maybe that's where it came from; Some Thespians associated the word MacBeth with playing the game, and so whenever someone said it they all lost! So it became best not to mention the name.

Obvious, really

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Turn the silliness to eleven!

What a fantastic episode of Blackadder that was. RSC are doing MacBeth at the mo'...Patrick Stewart starring. I might try and get tickets. Othello at the Donmar is also quite tempting...

I saw a production of MacBeth once where the theatre kept losing power and the stage would black out - usually just for 10 to 20 seconds. The first few times the actors stopped and then carried on again when the power was restored.
On about the 4th occasion, the actor playing MacBeth moved to the front of the stage (you could dimly see his outline) and, in his normal voice, said - in a ludicrous stage whisper - to the audience, "We're just going to carry on with the play through the blackouts and pretend it's not happening."
The announcement, to me, seemed to negate it's own intent and, had I known the concept at the time, I'm sure I would have been tempted to call out, "You just lost."

Patrick Stewart mentioned the Macbeth/Midsummer Nights Dream curse/antidote on Parkinson shown in Oz earlier this year.


Regarding blackout: When Close Encounters was first shown I lived in London and went to the cinema down Brixton Road near Tooting Bec. The film ran until the spaceship appeared then kept stopping. The manager came out in the darkness as the lights had failed as well and was greeted with calls of 'Is anybody there?'

(partially offtopic)

Next week I get to see my first RSC production! King Lear! Sir Ian McKellen! Can't wait!

(not at all excited about this. no, not at all.)