Cursed Play

Connor Dunn

What are the reasons behind this accusation and what real things have

occurred to support this statement?

• One if the reasons that it is called a cursed play is because the actresses that were in the play really studied dark magic and they used words that were dark spells.

• The superstition follows that any company performing the play will be beset with horrible luck, ranging anywhere from uncanny

accidents on the set to actual deaths within the company!

• in fact, in many parts, it is not only the production of the play that will strike fear, but quoting from the play or even the mere mention of the name Macbeth inside a theatre, be it the stage, the house, the lobby, or especially the dressing rooms will lose a person acquainted with the stage nearly all his or her

theatrical friends.

• The feathers or fans or even peacock designs on the stage are thought to be extremely unlucky. They are blamed for causing

numerous theatrical failures. • Cats on the other hand, are thought to be lucky in the

theater, that is as long as they are content to watch plays from the wings. A black cat is supposed to be an even more infallible source of good luck. It is said that all around the theatre world, dark felines are treated with the greatest care and consideration. Burnham If a cat crosses the stage though, it is thought to be a terrible

omen.

Should Lady Macbeth be the same age as Lord Macbeth?  

• No lady Macbeth should not be the same age as Lord Macbeth.

• It would be better if she was younger since she is a villain.

What do the predictions made by the three witches mean and what is

the significance that there are three weird sisters and why the term sisters?

• The predictions made by the three witches mean that he will one

day become king. • They also predict that Banquo will beget a line of kings, although will

not ascend the throne himself. King Duncan arranges to visit him at his castle.

• The three weird sisters are the three witches and I think why they are called wird sisters is because they helped Macbeth because without them he would of not of known anything.

Who is the historical figure of Macbeth?

• The historical figure of Macbeth is obviously the Scottish king.

• This is probably one of the reasons it is called the Scottish play.

Is Macbeth a good man who grows into a villain? 

• Yes, my opinion

Ghosts and Ghost lights

• Tales of haunted theaters abound, not only in America,

but also in Europe. Almost every theater in fact has an unexplainable occurrences that some attribute to ghosts. Jim Whitherell, who was head of the COS Theater Department for over 30 years, has one as well. It happened when the COS theatre was fairly new. One of the acting students had been killed shortly before this incident in a car accident. The stage lights flickered on and off throughout one dress rehearsal, when the lighting booth was inaccessible. Many theaters even attribute much luck to any one who sites one of their theater's apparitions. Anyone who sees the Drury Lane Ghost in London, England is supposed to have extraordinary success in acting. 

• Ghost lights are another interesting superstition. The generally accepted definition of a ghost Light is “… a single bare-bulb lamp left burning in the middle of the stage all night.” (Knapp) There are many ideas about how the practice of ghost lights came to be. There is everything from an urban legend about a burglar in a theater who sued when he fell off the stage in the dark, to that simply it is an equity mandate.

• The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts gives this background on their ghost lights; “There is a special light on a pole that can usually be pointed out easily in this theater. This is known as the ghost light. There is one in each of the four theaters. They are there for two reasons- one more practical and the second more fun. The first reason for the ghost light is so when someone walks into backstage of the dark theater they don't trip over set pieces and hurt themselves or accidentally walk off of the edge of the stage. The second reason is that back in Shakespeare's time candles were burned in theaters to scare away ghosts from old performances. Many theaters burned down from the simple fact that fire and wood don't mix but since we now have electricity, that is really not a problem.”

Info on play

• the play is one of Shakespeare’s shortest, as it is believed that James disliked long plays.

• James was someone who studied witchcraft.

• Most importantly, the inclusion of the witches, a subject that, made the King’s approval of the play inevitable.

• The story is taken from Holinshed, who copied it from the History of Scotland, by Hector Boece or Boyce, in seventeen volumes (1527). The history, written in Latin, was translated by John Bellenden (1531-1535).

• Evidence suggests that Macbeth was written by command as one of the plays to be given before King James I and the King of Denmark during the latter's notable visit to England in the summer of 1606.

• Shakespeare's company were the King's Players, and it would be natural for them to be commanded to produce a story of Scottish history touching on the ancestry of their patron. The title role was created by the great Richard Burbage and his infamous queen by the boy-actress Edmans. The play was first printed in the Folio of 1623, where the text shows some signs of cutting and alteration. The lyrical episodes of Hecate and the witches (III, 5 and IV, 1) are thought to have been added by another playwright.

• The real Macbeth took the throne of Scotland in 1040, after killing his cousin King Duncan I in a battle near Elgin in the Moray district of Scotland. Duncan's eldest son, Malcolm, ended Macbeth's reign in 1057 by killing him in battle and later assuming the throne as Malcolm III. The real Lady Macbeth's first name was Gruoch, although this is not mentioned in the play,

and he was her second husband. 

• The most intelligent writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical acclaim quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater.

Shakespeare

• His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603) and James I (ruled 1603–1625), and he was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible compliment by bestowing upon its members the title of King’s Men. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.

• Macbeth is not Shakespeare’s most complex play, but it is certainly one of his most powerful and emotionally intense. Whereas Shakespeare’s other major tragedies, such as Hamlet and Othello, fastidiously explore the intellectual predicaments faced by their subjects and the fine nuances of their subjects’ characters, Macbeth tumbles madly from its opening to its conclusion. It is a sharp, jagged sketch of theme and character; as such, it has shocked and fascinated audiences for nearly four hundred years.

Works cited

• http://home.flash.net/~manniac/macb.htm

• http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/Defymcbeth/Super2.html

• http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=17239