I was in
The Scottish Play at my school about a year or so ago. Our
director believed unflinchingly in the
curse. He'd tell us stories of horrible things that had happened to people who uttered
the Scottish King's name aloud inside the theater. We were
reprimanded if we
scoffed at the '
superstition'. I have heard stories of
broken bones,
car accidents,
illnesses,
terrible and
bizarre bad luck befalling those who'd spoken the M. word aloud. All attributed to the utterance of that name.
You
are allowed to speak the play's title during
rehearsal, only if it's in one of your lines. Other than that, you must
never do it. If you do, you
jeopardize not only yourself, but your
castmates as well.
There is a way to
avert the curse if you mistakenly speak the king's name out loud. If you, like a
nitwit, say the Scottish King's name, you have to immediately go outside, spin around three times, spit, swear loudly, and
hope for the best.
This is what I've been taught. It's been driven into me so that now when I hear the Scottish King's name I actually
flinch. Amongst the cast that I was a part of, there were
some people who didn't believe in the curse.
Some people were
careless with words.
Some people laughed aloud at the
gullibility of those who believed. They spoke the M. word
freely, dismissing those who insisted that they go spin, spit and swear afterward to prevent
catastrophe.
We were warned and warned not to say his name but some people just would not
heed.
A week before the play went up, there was an
electrical fire in the theater. Thankfully, nobody was inside at the time. No one was hurt, but our lights were
destroyed. If I remember correctly, the
fire department was never able to identify the cause of the fire. The wires were not
old or
faulty. It seemed that they had just
spontaneously combusted for no reason at all. It ended up costing a huge amount of money to repair all the damage. The theater was unusable for the play and we had to cancel some shows. A replacement set was hastily built for us to perform with at the
amphitheater across campus.
I am
by no means superstitious. I don't really believe in the curse. I think it's silly superstition and nothing more. Really, I do! But through bizarre bad luck stories and my own experience, I've somehow been
conditioned not to take any chances; I can never bring myself to say the play's name out loud.
Here's another thing that happened during that play. I've just
remembered it and feel like
sharing. I think this was on the night of our first performance. The entire amphitheater is
outdoors with no roof. As the play started, a
raven came and
perched nearby. Beautiful bird it was. It made no noise at all, only watched all the
players. During one of Lady M.'s
monologues,
"The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / Under my battlements. Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here..." the raven
alit and began circling over the set. It went back and perched itself on a tree after a bit, but later, I looked up and it was flying in circles near a patch of trees to the west of us as the Scottish King was speaking the line,
"the crow / Makes wing to the rooky wood" Weird, eh?
It flew away during
the last scene. Unlike the fire, the bird's visit felt a bit like a blessing.