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The Curse Of Macbeth18:22 Aug 07 2007
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THE CURSE OF MACBETH
OUT ,OUT DAMN SPOT
In a scene from Shakespear's Macbeth, three witches stand around a bubbling cauldron, brewing up a stew which includes ingredients such as eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog -- "double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble" -- we all know the scene. But there's a story behind that scene....and a curse on the play.
In 1606 King James I commissioned Shakespeare to write a play in honor of the visit of his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark. The play Shakespeare wrote was Macbeth.
POOR KING
James was no stranger to tragedy. He was taken from his mother shortly after birth and never knew her. His father was murdered soon after that. His mother was forced from the throne of Scotland, imprisoned fro 19 years in England, and beheaded by her cousin, Queen Elizebeth I. James began his rule of Scotland at age 19, married Anne of Denmark, had nine children, and survived a number of assassination attempts. When Queen
Elizebeth died, he ascended her throne. Moving to England from Scotland was like turning on a light in a dark room for James. he was particularly taken with Shakespear's
plays. He gave Shakespeare and his company royal protection in a time when actors were considered scoundrels. Shakespeare now had
the security, popularity, respect, and money that he needed. He produced six new plays in the next five years.
HERE COMES TROUBLE
King James was fascinated by witchcraft and obsessed by death, and demons, sound familiar?
He wrote a book about demonology and was considered the foremost authority on the subject. With this in mind, Shakespeare sat down to write a play that looked seriously at the king's favorite subject, and he did his homework. The plot was a thinly disquised accounting of the death of James's father; the witchcraft scene was crafted with care and filled with authentic details.
CURSES!
Some say the play's witchcraft spells and incantations were too faithfully reproduced, that they created a curse and that the curse is renewed every time the words are uttered. Others claim that local witches were so
incensed at having their secrets revealed that they placed a perpetual curse upon the play. Whatever the case, fro 400 years, Macbeth has been uncannily surrounded by death and disaster. So malevolent is the spell that it is said that bad luck will befall any actor who merely quotes from the play.
A CURE
To avoid the curse, veteran actors give theis advice: Walk out of the dressing room, turn around three times, spit or swear, knock on the door three times, and then humbly ask fro readmittance. If that doesn't work, try quoting this line from one of Shakespear's "lucky" plays, The merchant of Venice: "Fair thoughts and happyhours attend you."
DISASTER STRIKES
Skeptical?
Here is just a sampling of the disasters that have surrounded Macbeth.
In the early 1900s, the Moscow Arts Company was doing a dress rehearsal when actor Constantin stanislavski forgot his lines in the middle of the murder scene. He whispered for a prompt but the prompter was silent. He yelled for a prompt, but the prompter remained silent. Investigating, he found the prompter slumped over the script, dead. The show never opened.
During a 1937 production at the Old Vic Theatre in England, the theater's founder, Lilian Baylis, suddenly died of a heart attack just before the play opened.
Laurence Olivier, who was starring in the lead rold, missed death by seconds when a sandbag accidentally fell from the rafters.
In 1948, during a production at Stratford, Connecticut, Diana Wynyard as Lady Macbeth loudly announced she thought the curse was ridiculous.
She also decided it was silly to play her sleepwalking scene with her eyes open, and tried it with her eyes closed. She walked off the edge of the stage during the next performance and fell 15 feet down.
A version of the play directed by John Gielgud in 1942 was plagued by death. First, Beatrice Fielden-Kaye, in the role of one of the witches,
died of a heart attack. Next, Marcus Barron, in the role of Duncan, died of angina pectoris. Another of the witches, Annie Esmond, died on stage one night while she was vigorously dancing around the cauldron. Finally, set designer John Minton committed suicide in his studio, surrounded by his designs for the Macbeth sets and costumes. The repainted sets were later sent on tour with matinee ikol Owen Nares, who died on the tour.
A russion version of the play scheduled to be filmed in Georgia was canceled when nine members of the crew died of food poisoning on location.
During a 1971 production at the Mercer O'Casey Theatre, no less than seven burglaries and on fire marred the three-month run.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE, A WELL PREPAIRED STUDY GUIDE I FOUND WHILE RESEARCHING!!!
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COMMENTS
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GRTR1
04:50 Dec 21 2019
that's some nice work