General Information About Item:
- Type of Lore: Customary, superstition
- Language: English
- Country: United States
- Informant: Gus Guskowski
- Date Collected: 5/21/20
Informant Data:
- Gus Guskowski is a Dartmouth ’22 from rural Massachusetts. They live with their mother and father. On campus, they are actively involved with the Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals, Dartmouth’s student-run Shakespeare troupe. They intend to major in classics.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context: Among theatre groups, the superstition of never saying Macbeth in a theatre is widespread. The informant remarked that they had encountered this superstition in essentially all the theatre groups that they were a part of. The informant is unsure of the origin of this superstition, but suspects they read it in a book before encountering it in reality.
- Social Context: This superstition is most widely practiced among theatre groups and has a very specific social context. When within the walls of a theatre, it is forbidden to mention the Shakespeare play Macbeth by its title. Instead, the moniker “The Scottish play” is used. This functions as a clear identity marker for those “in the know” about theatre customs – mentioning Macbeth by name is a clear marker of an outsider.
Item:
- While with a theatre (during rehearsal/performance), it is bad luck to mention the Shakespeare play Macbeth by name. Mentioning the character Macbeth from the play, however, is not bad luck.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript:
- “The Rude Mechs (Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals) have the whole “never say Macbeth in a theatre” thing that some of us believe in more than others, but we do technically subscribe to that superstition.”
Informant’s Comments:
- On the distinction between the name of the play and that of the character – “If you’re performing the show Macbeth, they say the name Macbeth in that show a lot, so you literally could not do the show if you weren’t allowed to say (Macbeth’s) name.”
- The informant also mentioned a high school play they were a part of where the superstition was not practiced by the director of the play. This play went wrong in a variety of ways, lending anecdotal evidence to the superstition.
Collector’s Comments:
- This superstition, as most superstitions do, enforces deference to forces that are supernatural or superrational. The informant mentioned a vague idea of some curse on the play itself, bringing magic into the realm of superstition.
Collector’s Name: Ted McManus
Tags/Keywords:
- Theater, Macbeth, Superstitions, Luck