In 1606 William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, wrote a play which would go down in history as the cursed Scottish play after numerous mishaps during production.

It was written for his new patron, James I (James VI of Scotland), following the death of Queen Elizabeth.

James was interested in witchcraft and Scotland, and hence the themes in the play. Banquo is James's ancestor.

The play itself tells the story of a man, urged by his wife and foretold by prophecy, who commits regicide in order to gain power.

The theory goes that Shakespeare included actual black magic spells in the incantations of the weird sisters.

Those who appear in the play or those who mention the play's name within the confines of a theatre risk having these evils brought down on their heads.

The tragedy of Macbeth is considered so unlucky that it is hardly ever called by name inside the profession. People refer to the play as "that play”, “the unmentionable" or "the Scottish play."

It is supposed to be bad luck to quote from the play or to use any sets, costumes, or props from a production. The play partly acquired its evil reputation because of the weird sisters and partly because tradition traces a long line of disasters back to its premier on August 7, 1606.

In 1882, on the closing night of one production, an actor named J. H. Barnes was engaged in a scene of swordplay with an actor named William Rignold when Barnes accidentally thrust his sword directly into Rignold's chest. Fortunately a doctor was in attendance, but the wound was supposedly rather serious.

During the first modern-dress production at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1928, a large set fell down, injuring some members of the cast seriously, and a fire broke out in the dress circle.

The boy actor playing Lady Macbeth died back stage on opening night. In 1934, four actors played Macbeth in a single week. In 1937, Macbeth had to be postponed for three days after a change in directors and because of the death of Lilian Boylis.

In 1954, the portrait of Lilian Baylis crashed down on the bar on opening night.

In 1934, actor Malcolm Keen turned mute onstage, and his replacement, Alistair Sim, like Hal Berridge before him, developed a high fever and had to be hospitalized.

In 1937, a 30-year-old Laurence Olivier was rehearsing the play at the Old Vic when a 25-pound stage weight crashed down from the flies, missing him by inches. In addition, the director and the actress playing Lady Macduff were involved in a car accident on the way to the theatre, and the proprietor of the theatre died of a heart attack during the dress rehearsal.

In 1942, a production headed by John Gielgud suffered three deaths in the cast -- the actor playing Duncan and two of the actresses playing the Weird Sisters -- and the suicide of the costume and set designer.

In 1947, actor Harold Norman was stabbed in the swordfight that ends the play and died as a result of his wounds. His ghost is said to haunt the Coliseum Theatre in Oldham, where the fatal blow was struck. Supposedly, his spirit appears on Thursdays, the day he was killed.

In 1953, Charlton Heston starred in an open-air production in Bermuda. On opening night, when the soldiers storming Macbeth's castle were to burn it to the ground onstage, the wind blew the smoke and flames into the audience, which ran away. Heston himself suffered severe burns in his groin and leg area from tights that were accidentally soaked in kerosene.

In a production in St. Paul, Minnesota, the actor playing Macbeth dropped dead of heart failure during the first scene of Act III.

In one production of Macbeth, nothing went wrong until the fight scene between Macbeth and Macduff. Both actors had round "Celtic-style" shields strapped to their forearms of their left arms. The fight was very physical.

The actor playing Macbeth made a violent move with his left arm and the shield left his arm and flew like a Frisbee for twenty feet across the stage. The actor playing Macduff ducked instinctively and the shield hit the ground about sixteen inches from the front of the stage.

Sitting in the front row, directly opposite the shield sat two nuns. The superstition is not so much about doing the play as about naming it. You are not supposed to mention the title in a theatre.

In the last 135 years, the curse seems to have confined its mayhem to theatre people engaged in productions of the play.

The most common remedy to get rid of the curse is that the offender must step outside, turn around three times, spit, and say the foulest word he/she can think of, and wait for permission to re-enter the theatre.

MACBETH was written, and originally performed in 1606 in a society that was in turmoil was a plague year; over 30 thousand people died of the dreaded “black death”.

In November 1605, a terrorist plot to literally blow up the British Parliament, came so close to succeeding that the possibility of complete anarchy became a tangible reality.

King James and his bishops used the deliverance of the government from this ”Gunpowder Plot” as evidence of James’ divine right to the throne.

Because the ”equivocating” Jesuits were seen as being responsible, those loyal to the Pope were hunted with fanatical fervor, and burned.