Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, they're
Speaker 1: brain stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. If you're listening in
Speaker 1: a theater, you might want to save this one for later,
Speaker 1: because today we're talking about the Scottish play. William Shakespeare's
Speaker 1: tragedy Macbeth is steeped in deceit, murder, and manipulation, and
Speaker 1: surrounded by real life superstitions enough that plenty of theater
Speaker 1: professionals and enthusiasts won't even say the word Macbeth outside
Speaker 1: of the actual staging of a show. In the play,
Speaker 1: the Scottish general Macbeth returns home from the battlefield and
Speaker 1: encounters three witches who make a trio of prophecies. Many
Speaker 1: playgoers and performers believe that incantations in Macbeth were genuine
Speaker 1: curses taken from an actual coven. It's certainly one explanation
Speaker 1: for all of the injuries, accidents, and illnesses that have
Speaker 1: befallen so many of the people involved with its productions.
Speaker 1: For example, during the first performance of Vicbeth and the
Speaker 1: early six hundreds, the actor portraying Lady Macbeth fell ill
Speaker 1: and died on stage, forcing Shakespeare to take over the role.
Speaker 1: In later performances, theatergoers sometimes became so caught up in
Speaker 1: the action that they formed angry mobs and tried to
Speaker 1: exact justice on the antagonist, Lady Macbeth. Once in eighteen
Speaker 1: forty nine, more than thirty people died when rioting occurred
Speaker 1: part way through the play. Legendary actors like Laurence Olivier
Speaker 1: and Charlton Heston experienced close calls during performances. Olivier, who
Speaker 1: played Macbeth in nineteen thirty seven, was nearly crushed to
Speaker 1: death by a stage light. Heston, who took the role
Speaker 1: on in nineteen fifty three, was severely burned on his
Speaker 1: lower extremities after his tights were somehow dusting Kerosene, the
Speaker 1: eddy of misfortunes swirling around Macbeth, seems to mimic the
Speaker 1: tragedies that take place on stage. Lady Macbeth, in an
Speaker 1: effort to speed her husband's rise to the throne, encourages
Speaker 1: him to murder the reigning king. When Macbeth does, he
Speaker 1: enters into a state of paranoia. He murders his best friend,
Speaker 1: whose children are prophesies to take the throne in the future,
Speaker 1: as well as an entire family who sees his competition.
Speaker 1: In the end, a lady Macbeth dies of guilt and
Speaker 1: Macbeth is killed two. Meanwhile, audiences have been left to
Speaker 1: wonder whether the witches after whom the Macbeth rolls were
Speaker 1: patterned might have stolen into the theater, watched the first
Speaker 1: dress rehearsal, and left a curse that has endured for centuries.
Speaker 1: Perhaps they didn't appreciate their spells being put on display
Speaker 1: for public consumption. Maybe they just weren't fans of the theater.
Speaker 1: Whatever the reason, legend has it that they've banded together
Speaker 1: and cursed the play's future productions. There are other, perhaps
Speaker 1: more plausible explanations, though for starters, most of the plays
Speaker 1: performed in dimly lit and foggy conditions, which have probably
Speaker 1: led to many of the on stage accidents that have
Speaker 1: plague productions. And then there are the fight scenes. Macbeth
Speaker 1: has more skirmishes than most plays, which increases the odds
Speaker 1: that something will go wrong. Condense all this strife into
Speaker 1: the Bard's shortest tragedy, it's no wonder that people have
Speaker 1: gotten hurt. All live productions flirt with mishaps, both large
Speaker 1: and small. Costumes can malfunction, actors can get sick, crew
Speaker 1: members of stained injuries. When multiplied by the thousands of
Speaker 1: times Macbeth has been performed throughout the last four centuries,
Speaker 1: these problems are bound to add up and perpetuate the
Speaker 1: belief that the play is cursed. But if anything weird
Speaker 1: happens to me after this episode, y'all take heat and
Speaker 1: just be carefu well with that name. Yeah. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other dramatic topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.