Simply play on and "Lay on, Macduffy!"

Well, I just finished reading Macbeth. Wowee. I certainly wasn't sure what I was getting into with this one. You see, my immediate association with Macbeth was an old and strong theater superstition, which has filtered down and is still present, even in the community theaters where I practice the craft. It is simply that you cannot say the word Macbeth in a theater. Not in the audience, not on stage, not in the lobby, not anywhere. There is supposedly a strong curse connected to "the Scottish play" (as it is referred to by all theater type folks), and saying the title will bring accidents, ill-fortune, and all around bad vibes to your production.

There are many proposed sources of this superstition (see: http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/Defymcbeth/Super2.html) but I personally like the idea of the Weird Sisters and Hecate releasing their wrath on all thespians.

So basically I didn't know much about the actual play, except for the vague sense of dread that comes with the name. After reading it, I have the same sense, but for more substantial reasons. This play, my friends, is Shakespeare done Alfred Hitchcock-style. A murder has gone down, and the suspense is rising. Add in a background war and political power struggle, as well as some crazy potion brewing, and you have the best Halloween movie EVER.

But seriously, after Macbeth murders the king (a guest in his own house), he grow paranoid, and starts killing off everyone who might be suspicious. He sees ghosts, and if that weren't enough, his wife goes crazy. I actually read somewhere that Lady Mac is a predecessor to modern obsessive-compulsive disorder, with her constant hand washing. She's convinced that the blood from the murder is still visible--that she will never be clean. It's rather like "The Tell-tale Heart", but with sword fights.

Personally, my favorite bit is the witches song:

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

And there's more where that comes from, ladies and gentlemen. Actually there are rumors that the witch's songs and parts were enlarged substantially in the printing of Macbeth, and not by Shakespeare. Of course, all of his plays are surrounded by a veritable fog of...unveritifiable-ness. But I want to just imagine William Shakespeare, regular guy, sitting in the Globe, or in Stratford, scratching out play after play. I don't like conspiracy theories, and feel that in relentless searching for the honest-to-God-Discovery-Channel-truth, people tend to forget the real point, the reason why they like these plays in the first place.

Well, that's all for now.

Molly

(PS: The subject line is a quote from a rather hysterical song from the Broadway musical Kiss Me, Kate, called "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." For some of the most far fetched rhymes you will ever read, check it out at http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/brushupy.htm)