Macbeth (Play)

"MACBETH" - One of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, written around 1606. It depicts (in a strongly distorted fashion) the story of Macbeth and his rise and fall. Macbeth is familiar with the play, but amused rather than offended by it - partly because he and Shakespeare were close friends.

An Interesting Note

Actors and other theatre people often consider it to be bad luck to mention Macbeth by name while inside a theatre -- except as appropriate while ON stage DURING a production, and usually refer to it superstitiously as The Scottish Play or sometimes, "The Scottish King".

This is said to be because Shakespeare used the spells of real witches in his text, so witches got angry and are said to have cursed the play. Thus, to say the name of the play inside a theatre is believed to doom the production to failure, and perhaps cause physical injury or worse to cast members. A large mythology has built up surrounding this superstition, with countless stories of accidents, misfortunes and even deaths, all mysteriously taking place during runs of Macbeth.

In reality actors were worried that if a play was not going well, anyone mentioning Macbeth might prompt a manager to consider Shakespeare's shortest tragedy to pull in the crowds.