Tag Archives: theatre

The Legend of Macbeth

Folklore/ Text: “Macbeth!”

KM: Uttering the word “Macbeth” within a theatrical setting immediately brings bad luck to your day. This legend dates back to the early 1600s during the first-ever performance of Macbeth. The actor that was intended to portray Lady Macbeth suddenly passed away before the show, forcing Shakespeare himself to play the part. Later, the person playing King Duncan was stabbed with an actual dagger, and killed in front of a live audience. Many more unfortunate events like riots and murders have occurred during the runs of Macbeth, upholding the strange folklore surrounding the play. The only remedy is to exit the theater after saying the word, spin around three times, spit over your left shoulder, and either swear or recite a line of Shakespeare dialogue.  

Explanation/ Context: After over 400 years of Macbeth being performed on stages all over the world, the continuous accidents and occurrences further exemplify the grim lore of the play. It’s almost common knowledge that the word is cursed, whether you’re involved in theatre or not. No accidents are the same, but somehow exclusively happen during performances of Macbeth. When something goes wrong– someone said “Macbeth!” Even the remedy is widely known and allegedly stops oncoming.

Pre-Show Warm Up Chant

Text

“Tarzan, swinging from a rubber band, crashed into a frying pan, ow that hurts. Now Tarzan has a tan, and I hope it doesn’t peel! (peel is said in a falsetto voice) like a banana (beat chest). Jane, flying in an aeroplane, swept up by a hurricane. Ow, that hurt. Now Jane has a pain, and Tarzan has a tan, and I hope it doesn’t peel! Like a banana!”

Context

According to my informant, this chant is a repeat-after-me type of chant that’s used as a pre-show warm-up in school theatres. My informant says that there will be one or two leaders who will start the chant, and after every line, the rest of the cast in the theatrical production will loudly repeat after them. According to her, it’s been done before nearly every single show she’s ever been in, and is used to bring everyone’s energy levels up before the show officially starts. Alongside different inflections in the voice when one performs this chant, there are also some bodily movements done as well, including beating ones chest like a gorilla during following the like “like a banana.”

My Analysis

Being involved in theatre myself, I immediately recognized this pre-show chant when my informant brought it up in our interview. Immediately, I could remember all of the vocal inflections done in the chant, and how it really did bring everyone’s energy levels up in order to create a great show for the audience. My informant and I grew up together, but now live in very different places, and I thought it was immensely neat that theatrical productions all across the United States are utilizing this pre-show chant as a means to hype everybody up.

Pirate joke

Background: Informant is an 18 year old Jewish-American from Chicago, IL. They have a background in theatre and loves to tell jokes with their family. The informant says that their father, an actor, told them this joke.

Informant: My dad told me this joke when I was younger and it is one of the first jokes I ever memorized and I liked it because it was inappropriate. If somebody asks me to tell a joke it;s the first thing that comes to mind veen though I know it’s not a good one. 

A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel in his pants. The bartender says, “hey why do you have a steering wheel in your pants?” and the pirate goes, “aaaaar it’s driving me nuts!”

Reflection: I really enjoyed hearing my friend tell me this joke because it was really cheesy and I ahd heard a similar one before. I thought it was interesting how they mentioned that they liked it as a child due to it’s inappropriate nature, showing how children often cling to taboo subjects. This joke is also particularly funny in how it relies on the person’s delivery to make the other laugh. It requires a sense of theatricality that my informant had!

The M-Word

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2pm 9, 2021
Primary Language: English

“So in the theatre you’re not supposed to say the word Macbeth ever. And that is because in legend, Shakespeare used like actually witch spells in the beginning of Macbeth, um, and so the witches cursed him and cursed the play so every time it was said in the theatre like something would go wrong in the production. And I’ve heard stories of like this happening to, you know, not to my school but like my friend’s school or a friend of a friend’s school, where like someone said Macbeth like 40 times in the middle of the theatre, and, like the pipes burst during opening night and like the lead broke their knee or whatever. And the only way to reverse this curse is to go out of the theatre, spin around three times while spitting over your shoulder and saying Shakespearean curses, and then ask to be invited back into the theatre. That’s the only way to reverse the curse. And so um for a lot of thespians, they try and find new and creative ways to say Macbeth. So I’ve heard the M-Word, I’ve heard Mac Daddy, I’ve heard the Scottish Play…Mac Daddy is a funny one I heard that at a like regional theatre competition like out of the mouth of like a grown man so that’s fun.”

Notes: This is a tentpole of the theatre community. I’ve never met anyone who was tangentially involved in theatre and hadn’t heard of the M-word. I’m not particularly superstitious, and even I jump at hearing the word Macbeth. This is a long-persisting legend, I feel in part to the universal “friend of a friend” that we can cite as our real-life source. I do think its interesting that this is the play that was chosen to be taboo as opposed to any of the other tragedies, which can be more gruesome and more supernatural. Perhaps this is the most well known tragedy?

For more on the curse, click here for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s article on the M-word.

Whistling in the Theatre

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USA
Performance Date: 04/29/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish (a bit)

Main Content:

M: Me, I : Informant

I: You are also not supposed to whistle in a theatre.

…

M: And then you were saying whistling?

I: Whistling is a no no because um back in the day uh theatres were operated by like sailors and they would whistle to each other to get cues, so if you whistled in a theatre, like the thought was a sailor would hear that and then like drop a sand bag on you. You know?

M: Gotcha

I: Yeah so that’s like thought to be bad luck

M: And that’s still functions in todays society even though we don’t have the sailors anymore.

I: Yeah, yeah

M: Gotcha

I:It’s just— don’t whistle in a theatre.

M: cause then you get bad luck, is someone gonna get hurt or just something is going to go wrong?

I: Yeah all of these are just like bad luck for like the show.

Context: This informant has been an active member of the theatre community since she was a child. She has been in numerous productions. She learned this from those around her and then became an active bearer of this folklore by explaining and passing it down to the younger years.

Analysis: After she learned this theatre lore, she then became an active bearer of this folklore by explaining and passing it down to the younger and newer actors. This folklore had a practical usage back in the days when sailors would operate the theaters and communicate through whistle cues. Thus, whistling would interfere and possibly trigger an accident. However, even when sailors exited from theatre operations, the practice of not whistling continued as it was ingrained as part of the culture. While we have moved from modernity to the digital age with amazing technological the folklore persisted because the practicality wasn’t important anymore as it was more about the history of accidents and ‘bad luck’ associated with whistling in the theatre. Now it’s become a part of what we learn from other actors and if you slip up, oftentimes people will correct you, which helps to keep this folklore alive and circulating.