Is the "Scottish play" superstition pointless?

Question

Know how it's forbidden to utter the word "Macbeth" within the walls of a theatre? But, in that case, what about the name in the play? Don't the actors have to call the main character "Macbeth"? How do they wriggle out of it? Incidentally, I doubt that the crowd at the theatre would comply either - somebody's bound to say it, at least accidentally. Isn't this whole superstition pointless? Or is there an explanation for that?

Answer 1

On the surface, yes, of course it's pointless. It's just a silly superstition. For every "Oh, we said it and a bad thing happened" story, there are a thousand stories where nothing ill came of saying the name you never hear about.

However, I'm very careful about it. Actors are second only to baseball players in their belief in silly superstitions. In the interest of not freaking out any actors around me, I avoid saying Macbeth out loud, not just in a theater but anywhere, unless I'm sure nobody is going to get spastic on me.

Most of them, however, are just doing it for fun. It's a kind of ritual that bonds actors to each other. There's a little clearing-out ritual: go outside, turn around three times, spit, and ask to come in. The person watching the door bops you on the head and lets you in.

It's a silly exercise, but the sense of community is important to a show. Actors who are friends and who have little in-jokes between them work better together. Especially when they're playing enemies on stage: it's easier to really go nuts on somebody if you know that they're not going to resent you off stage.

(The rules as I understand them, BTW, mean that you can say the name safely in the course of the play. You just can't say it elsewhere; some even extend that beyond the walls of the theater, and it's always "Scottish Play" or "Scottish Gentleman" or "Lady M".)

It is odd that my own theater troupe has had less-than-successful productions of the play twice, including the worst on-stage injury we've ever had: a dropped blunted knife prop that just happened to hit somebody exactly wrong and require stitches. But that really is just looking for trouble: we've done worse productions and had other injuries. It's called the "spotlight fallacy": people have selective memories when proving something they want to believe.

Answer 2

The superstition came about because of the many bad things that happened during the first production [actors hurt, globe theater burned to the ground] which many attribute to the "spells" cast by the 3 witches.

Actors refer to the character of Macbeth as the Scottish king, or the thane just as they call it "that play" or "the scottish play".

If the word Macbeth is uttered a lot of theatre folk require the offender to go outside spin around 3 times [or walk 3 times around the theatre] spit on the ground and then knock and ask to be allowed back in.

I never really belived there was much to this whole thing but I was in a show where an actor said Macbeth in the theatre, did not perform the above action and 2 days before the show opened he came down with hepatitus. So perhaps there is something to the superstion after all? ;^)

Answer 3

To give you a direct answer: Yes, it is pointless. To answer your question with a question: Have you ever heard of a superstition that wasn't pointless?
If there were any real basis for any superstition, it wouldn't be superstition. It would a statement of fact.

Answer 4

I've never heard about that one before. So it probably is pointless.