If anyone knows theatre stuff, then you know that saying the name “Macbeth” outside of lines curses the playhouse/theatre, well how many of you know why that is?

It’s that way due to the tragedies that have occurred where performances of the show was taking place.




It all started with the death of one person, an actor, the actor died suddenly hundreds of years ago, it was one of the original actors, they died only days before the performance was supposed to go on.

The next death (I forget the date at the moment) was another actor, but unlike the last one the murder/death happened in a live performance. Someone had misplaced the prop knife that was supposed to stab the one character, and it was replaced with a real knife, resulting in the death of the actor.

Now let’s not forget to mention the riot. There were 2 people playing the part of Macbeth and had a disagreement which ended in a riot. In total from that riot 22 people died.

Due to situations like these, many actors avoid saying the name Macbeth, but rather refer to the play as “The Scottish tragedy”. It is also believed that there is a “darkness” written in the play, the way it is believed to be written in is with the witches curse, some believe Shakespeare wrote in an ancient curse for the witches.


In other words, 24+ people died due to a show, in weird, or abnormal ways, those in theatre avoid saying the name “Macbeth” outside of the lines, and that Shakespeare may have written in an ancient curse into the play. There is a way to keep there from being death if I remember right if you do accidentally say it, run outside of the theatre, spin 3 times, then shout a profanity, or a Shakespearean line, and spit over your right shoulder.











Other notes: Go Here for some of the information, I may have gotten some of these things wrong, I am running half on memory, and half on what was in that article. Also Macbeth is pronounced “Micbeth”