How often do we find ourselves saying “If I only had more time, I could…”, or, “Sorry I’m late, time got away from me”, or even, “What time is it?” (even with a phone in our back pocket). Well, at 2AM on March 8th, time WILL get away from most of us when we “spring forward” and move the clocks one hour ahead, but this is not the place to debate the creation of Daylight Savings Time.
Yet, the mere concept of time carries so many emotions. Hope as we wait to learn if we got that job or that part, dread when we are unprepared and facing a project deadline, and relief…when our plane finally takes off after a long delay. Many famous people have been quoted on their references to time, and to be fair, most of us are not famous, but still talk about it. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer writes, “Time and tide wait for no man.” Albert Einstein said, “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Now, THAT is both obvious and brilliant at the same…….. well, you know.
This month, as we move the clock ahead, we also turn to Shakespeare, a poet who frequently explored the concept and symbolism of time. One of the best examples of this is “The Scottish Play” (more on that later). In the story, time is an uncontrollable force where prophecies demonstrate how little control we have and still rush to act without thinking. The fast pace of the action makes a long reign of terror feel like it all happens in one weekend. And Shakespeare’s existential poetry alights on time throughout the play: “Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.” “If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not…” “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…”
The Missoula Children’s Theatre Youth Series presents the Shakespeare Trunk Show of Macbeth, live on stage, Friday, March 20 at 7PM and Saturday, March 21 at 7PM. Directed by Sarah Walker Thornton, a graduate of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s MFA program and co-founder of the NYC-based Shakespeare ensemble BAMA Theater Company, and performed by a cast of talented and enthusiastic teens, this play will bring the Bard to the MCT stage as never seen before. Rated PG-13, this play deals with some of the darkest parts of humanity, and it also takes place during war time. Depicted will be stage battles, death, and murder. Shakespearean tragedy, anyone? This fast-paced, shortened version of the play will be performed with no intermission. So, you absolutely have time to see it!
The Curse of Macbeth
(the play “that shall not be named” but hopefully typed is okay!)
The theatre has a great many traditions, and with tradition comes superstition! One of Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies, Macbeth, is surrounded by superstition and fear of the “curse.” It has been believed since all the way back to the play’s first production in 1606 that uttering the play’s name (also the name of the title character) aloud in a theatre brings bad luck. Alternative names for the play run the gamut, but the most widely used replacement is “The Scottish Play” (though, we are partial to “Mackers” around MCT). But where did this superstition come from?
Back in the sixteenth century, the king of Scotland, James VI, was obsessed with witchcraft. The execution of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587 was said to have inspired his dark fascination with magic. When he and his new bride were on a sea-voyage, a terrible storm nearly drowned them, and King James was certain witches were to blame. He ordered many witch-hunts and even wrote a treatise on the evils of witchcraft called Daemonologie.
King James VI became King James I of England in 1603, and his new subjects were eager to appease him- especially the playwrights! Christopher Marlowe (one of Shakespeare’s biggest competitors) wrote Doctor Faustus, and its shocking portrayal of association with the devil intensified England’s fear of dark magic. Not to be outdone, Shakespeare’s Macbeth followed in 1606 and even included direct references to James’ earlier misfortune at sea: “Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed.” It’s believed that Shakespeare went as far as to use actual magic spells and ingredients in some of the lines spoken by the three Weird Sisters in Macbeth. According to the folklore, a coven of witches objected to Shakespeare using real incantations, so they put a curse on the play. The dialogue of the Weird Sisters is also written in trochaic tetrameter (eight stressed-unstressed syllables = DUM-dah), rather than the typical iambic pentameter (ten unstressed-stressed syllables = dah-DUM) of Shakespeare’s poetry, which already makes their speech seem other-worldly.
Some Examples of the Curse at Work
- Legend has it, the play’s first performance (around 1606) was riddled with disaster. They say the actor playing Lady Macbeth died suddenly, so Shakespeare himself had to take on the part. (This is very likely just folklore, though.)
- Two American actors playing “Mackers” in rival productions in NYC in 1849 caused the famous Astor Place Riot, which resulted in at least 20 deaths and over 100 injuries.
- Other productions have been plagued with accidents, injuries, illnesses, mysterious deaths, and even narrow misses like falling stage weights, as happened to Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic in 1937.
The Counter-Curse
So how can you avoid catastrophe if you utter the true title of “The Scottish Play” while inside the walls of a theatre?
Exit the theatre, spin around three times, spit (gross, we know), curse, and then knock on the theatre door to be allowed back in… “Spin, Spit, Swear.”
Some counter-curse practitioners say you have to run around the outside of the building, spit, and swear (or quote a line from a different Shakespeare play.) A popular choice:
“Angels and ministers of grace defend us!” –Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4 (when Hamlet first sees his father’s ghost.)
Here is the cast is rehearsing the famous “Cauldron Scene” (the theoretical beginnings of the famous “curse”)!
Our costume designer, Sarah Sizemore, has been hard at work creating our war-torn looks!
