ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160076
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON STAFF WRITER
Shakespeare might have called it "a deed without a name.'' Indeed, until tonight the title of Mill Mountain Theatre's latest production will not be spoken by the cast backstage, in the dressing rooms... or even at the coffee shop.
As deeply as the characters of the Bard's epic tragedy "Macbeth" are mired in sorcery, so is the very performance of the play steeped in a tradition of superstition.
From the beginning, the play has accrued a history of dubious deaths, riots, fires, car crashes... and bad reviews. It's common for theater groups to avoid saying the play's name aloud for fear of bad luck.
And the cast and crew of the Mill Mountain Theatre aren't taking any chances.
Jere Lee Hodgin, the director, invites folks to see "the Scottish Play" and explains that, while he doesn't necessarily believe in the bad luck myth, it does cross his mind occasionally.
"I don't know why," he says, "but, I've been more nervous this time around."
Backstage, he adds, the cast is pretty much abiding by the tradition. "Theaters have burned, or defaulted, historically speaking," he says, "around the time they were producing `Macbeth.''' He admits, though, that the same thing probably has happened to productions of "Oklahoma'' for that matter.
"The curse continues to be whispered about around the theater," he says. "It's actually a lot of fun not saying the name."
The "curse" is said to have begun in 1606. Moments before the curtain was to rise on the very first production of "Macbeth," the boy playing the role of Lady Macbeth died backstage. Shakespeare played the part himself.
In 1849, a long and nasty rivalry between American actor Edwin Forrest and British actor John Macready erupted into a riot that left 31 people dead in front of a theater where Macready was appearing in "Macbeth."
A 1934 run at London's Old Vic required a fourth Macbeth after the first three fell to laryngitis, a chill, and firing - all in one week.
Lilian Baylis, a founder of the Old Vic, died when she learned the 1937 production's opening, starring Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson, was to be delayed. Her favorite dog, Snoo, had died the night before. Meanwhile, the director was nearly killed in a taxi accident and Olivier unintentionally wounded various MacDuffs during the battle scenes and had to dodge a falling bag of sand himself.
When "Macbeth" opened there again in 1956, Miss Baylis' portrait fell from the wall and was smashed to smithereens.
In the Orson Welles-John Houseman production of "Voodoo Macbeth," five live goats were sacrificed one night by Abdul, a genuine witch doctor and cast member.
Percy Hammond, a theater critic, panned "Voodoo Macbeth" in the New York Herald Tribune. He died of pneumonia several days later. Some attribute his death to the work of a group of African drummers who were told by Houseman that Hammond was a "bad man,'' and then set to an entire night of drumming and chanting in the theater's basement.
"Macbeth" is a tale of torment with a monstrous body count. The title character is driven to destroy his life through ambition and greed. The play's ubiquitous witches promise him greatness and he is only too ready to do whatever it takes to achieve it. His ruthless wife stokes his royal passions by encouraging him to commit "murder most foul." His conscience gets the better of him, but, still trusting in his foreseen future, he tries to cover his guilty tracks and causes yet more death.
It's a story of "murder, sex, ambition, greed, scandal, corruption and violence," says Mill Mountain's press release. Perfect for an election year.
Many of the Bard's works are veritable quote-fests, but "the Scottish Play" offers up a mega-dosage of recognizable phrases. There is: "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" Also: "Lead on, Macduff," "the be-all and end-all," "the milk of human kindness" and the sinister "by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes".
If you've ever said "Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble," you've quoted from "Macbeth."
Then there's a Faulkner favorite: "It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
The Mill Mountain production's set is sinister in its own right. It features swirls of staircases that lift the action from the front-row seats into a heaven of spotlights and cables slung high above the stage. And while the theater's basement may be free of drumming and chanting, there are corners where the light thickens and the superstitious cauldron simmers.
Cursed or not, this "Scottish Play" will have a name when it opens tonight on its black and slatted stage. "Macbeth" will continue to cast its eerie spell through March 10.
'Macbeth' At the Mill Mountain Theatre through March 10. Tickets $14-$18. Call 342-5740.
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Tim Gregory and Kim Martin-Cottenby CNBare not a happy couple as the newly crowned king and queen of
Scotland in Mill Mountain Theatre's 'Macbeth." color.