Macshush!

Macshush!

One of our cast members sent out this article from the Washington Post about the curse associated with Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Macshush!

How "Macbeth" acquired such a sinister reputation is a matter of dispute. The play, for those in need of a quick primer, concerns a Scottish general who is spurred by his own ambition as well as the prophetic incantations of the Weird Sisters—not to mention the merciless noodgings of his coldblooded wife—to murder and usurp the King of Scotland. This ends badly, to say the least, with Lady Macbeth a suicide and her hubby a rueful, morally repulsive cretin who is eventually killed, thus restoring order to the universe. It’s a brutal tale, filled with infanticide, torture, stabbing and body parts. At one point, horses go insane and eat each other.

The article goes on to enumerate examples of this curse throughout the play’s history, including some really creepy ones from modern times. True to form, our production has had quite a few troubles so far. Let’s see: two cast members dropped out of the show during rehearsal (one because he was drafted to the army, the other because of a family emergency); one cast member was injured on stage and required three stitches, and right after last Friday’s matinee, our large cast photograph fell from its place with a hideous-sounding crash, shattering all the glass. Thank goodness, no one was hurt; it appears that the edges of the frame contained all the glass, so that none of it flew into the air, where it could have caused damage.

Still, it makes a person think.

I have call again this evening, and I get to be murdered (and resurrected as another character) five more times during this run.

Fun!