Hello and welcome to "Read it and (Don't) Weep," the podcast that will help you breeze through your high school literature classes. Are you tired of struggling to understand the themes and characters in classic works of literature? Well, I’ve got you covered! I am your host, Jackey Taggart, and I taught high school English for almost 20 years. Join me each episode as I dive into the world of high school literature and break down the essential elements of each work. From Shakespeare to Steinbeck, I'll cover it all. My goal is to give you valuable insights and analysis on some of the most popular high school literary texts, as well as tips and tricks for acing your tests and essays. Let’s start reading!

Hello and welcome back to Read It and (Don’t) Weep. I’m Jackey Taggart, and in this episode we’re taking a short break from the plot of Macbeth to talk about something a little different… and a little spooky.

If you’ve been following along, you know Act 4 leans heavily into witchcraft and the supernatural. But here’s something interesting, for centuries, many people in the theater believe the play itself is cursed.

In fact, inside a theater, actors often won’t even say the name Macbeth. Instead, they call it “The Scottish Play.”

So where did this idea come from?

Well, some people think it’s because Shakespeare included what were believed to be real witchcraft elements in the script, spells, chants, and rituals that audiences at the time would have taken very seriously.

Others think the explanation is a lot more practical. Macbeth was known as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. If a theater company was struggling financially, they’d perform “The Scottish Play” to try to make a profit. If it didn’t go well, the play was blamed instead of the management. Over time, that reputation turned into a superstition.

According to theater tradition, if you accidentally say the name of the play inside a theater, you’re supposed to follow a very specific ritual to break the curse.

If you spoke the name, you would need to: 

Leave the theater immediately, turn around three times and spit, say, “Angels and ministers of grace defend us!” which is a quote from Hamlet, then knock on the door and politely ask to be let back in. Some versions even say you have to run around the theater building before knocking.

Now, it might sound ridiculous, but theater is a very collaborative environment. Even actors who don’t believe in the curse often go along with the ritual just to avoid stressing everyone else out.

Whether the curse is real or just theater folklore, there have been some pretty dramatic mishaps during productions over the years.

Legend says that at one of the earliest performances, the actor playing Lady Macbeth suddenly died, and Shakespeare himself had to step in.

In another production, a prop dagger was supposedly replaced with a real one during the murder scene, leading to a fatal accident on stage.

There’s also the Astor Opera House Riot of 1849 in New York, when a rivalry between fans of two different actors playing Macbeth escalated into a riot that left dozens dead and many more injured.

In the twentieth century, there were still strange incidents. Laurence Olivier narrowly avoided being hit by a heavy stage weight that fell from above. Actress Diana Wynyard publicly mocked the curse, then fell off the stage during the sleepwalking scene the very next night.

And in one Broadway production in the 1980s, the show went through multiple directors, cast changes, and many illnesses.

Now, are these events proof of a supernatural curse? Probably not. But they’ve definitely helped the legend survive.

And honestly, whether the curse is real or not, it fits the play perfectly. “The Scottish Play” is all about fate, prophecies, and the idea that once the supernatural forces are set in motion, they’re hard to escape. The superstition surrounding the play almost feels like an extension of its themes, as if the eerie world of the witches spilled off the stage and into real life.

Thanks for listening to this special episode, Next time, we’ll jump back into the play and see how the witches’ prophecies finally play out for Macbeth. Trust me, the end comes fast, and it doesn’t go as expected.

Closing

Thanks for listening to this episode of Read it and (Don’t) Weep. Be sure to subscribe to the show so you will be notified when new episodes are released. If you liked today’s show, please leave a review so others can discover my show.  If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, drop me an email at readitanddontweep@gmail.com, or reach out to me on social media. I would love to hear from you. The links are in the show notes.  

Thank you for listening.  I am Jackey Taggart and remember to Read It and Don’t Weep.