Macbeth (play)

Macbeth, also called The Tragedy of Macbeth, is one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays, written around 1606. It depicts a distorted account of the story of Macbeth of Scotland and his rise and fall. In its cast of characters, it includes Macbeth himself, as well as King Duncan and the Weird Sisters. The character of Lady Macbeth, while ostensibly based on Gruoch, shares traits with Demona, the "other woman" in Macbeth's life.

The play portrays Macbeth as something of a villain and Duncan the noble king (a reversal of their roles in the Gargoyles universe), although this varies according to the specific production.

Macbeth is familiar with the play, but amused rather than offended by it - partly because he and Shakespeare were close friends.

Before the termination of the series, a two-part episode was planned, in which several Gargoyles characters were trapped in a production of this play. It would have had Macbeth playing himself, Demona as Lady Macbeth, Goliath as Macduff, Elisa as Lady Macduff, and Hudson as King Duncan. The higher-ups at Disney would not allow the episode to be made as a two-parter, and feeling that it was too complicated to fit into a single episode Greg Weisman dropped the notion of including it in the second season of the television series.

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.

See also

• Macbeth (play) at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia