DOUBLE, DOUBLE HERE COMES TROUBLE

By Jordan Mann

An apocalyptic event is coming to Phoenix, a marshalling of the forces of darkness and ill fortune such as has never been seen before. Phoenix's two Shakespeare companies will be presenting Macbeth... at the same time.

Now before you laugh and turn to the audition's page consider the dark history of this particular play and the havoc it has wreaked for the last 400 years. Perhaps its the violent nature of the play, perhaps its the presence of the supernatural, but productions of the play are often plagued with bad luck, accidents, backstage disasters, and a wide variety of fatalities & injuries.

The original production at the Globe in 1606 saw the untimely death of Hal Berridge the boy playing Lady Macbeth. In 1849 the rivalry between American actor Edwin Forrest and British actor John Macready culminated in the deaths of 31 people during a riot in front of the theater where Macready was playing Macbeth. One memorable story surrounds a 1930's Orson Welles production involving a Haitian Witch doctor, six black goats and the sudden death of a theater critic whose review of the production was less than favorable, (let that be a warning to Messrs Lawson, McQueen & Pela).

Ask around! If you know anyone who has been involved with the play ask them how their production was and start counting the bodies.

Even backstage on any other play, saying the name of the play is considered by any Shakespearean worth his doublet to be a jinx of the highest order. It is always referred to as "The Scottish play" or "The M play". Offenders are immediately escorted out of the theater and will not be allowed back in until an appropriate ritual of contrition (usually involving spinning around three times) has been performed.

To test my theory I asked anonymous members of both companies if their productions had met with any ill fortune. I was not surprised to discover the following facts- For The Shakespeare Theater's production the set had to be re-designed halfway through rehearsals, 5 or 6 minor injuries were incurred, and it took 5 weeks to successfully cast one of the three witches.

SW Shakespeare decided to ignore the curse, feeling that it only affects you

If you believe in it. While they did have some problems ranging from loss of weapons to problems with a technical staff, they don't attribute this to the curse. They did notice, that their opening performance coincided to the minute with the lunar eclipse that turned the skies blood red.

So now Phoenix, in an act of hubris worthy of the Thane of Cawdor himself, will have the Scottish play being performed play on opposite sides of the valley, and during the weekend of Jan 21-23 both will be running concurrently. Some may say this is simply an example of the poor coordination of Valley theaters. Some may call it a power struggle between Southwest Shakespeare & The Shakespeare Theater. Many may consider it just one of those odd coincidences that are part of an expanding theater community.

Do not be fooled, we got off light with Y2K. Mac2K is coming and no one will be spared.

But I've decided to "die with harness on my back", and it is my plan to attend both productions the weekend of the dark conjunction. Most likely I will have the opportunity to see Phoenix's finest tackle Shakespeare's immortal tragedy and live to tell the tale. But if my by-line is missing from the next issue, well, you'll know the reason why....