Curse of Macbeth strikes Alan Cumming
The curse of
Macbeth has struck Hollywood actor Alan Cumming.
Just hours
after starting his first day of rehearsals with the National Theatre Scotland,
the X-Men 2 star cut his finger on one of the set’s props.
Theatre actors are notoriously
superstitious about the famous Shakespeare play, making sure they don’t say ‘Macbeth’
on stage.
Referring to
“The Scottish Play,” actors believe even uttering the title of Macbeth invites
bad luck.
Cumming’s
accident came four hours after he took to his Twitter page to announce he was
starting rehearsals in Glasgow.
The
47-year-old, who will be performing a one-man version of the famous play in
June this year, tweeted his 70,000 followers yesterday evening.
“First
NTSMacbeth injury! Cut my finger on a toy robot I was using to represent Lady
Macbeth in a little theatre game. Blood will have blood,” he said.
‘Blood will
have blood’ is a famous line from the Shakespeare, said by Macbeth to show his
guilt over murdering King Duncan and former ally Banquo.
Hours before suffering an injury on
set, Cumming was clowning around with the production team, and tweeted: “First
day of NTSMacbeth rehearsals. Here I am with the production team.
#itreallydoestakeavillage.”
Performing
Macbeth, or speaking its title in a theatre is said to invoke an ancient curse.
The curse
will strike actors or other people associated with the performance, and has its
roots in the play’s occult storyline of witchcraft, murder and ghosts.
Superstition
has plagued the theatre since the first documented production on Aug 7, 1606,
in the Great Hall at Hampton Court.
On the night
of the performance, a 13 year-old boy, Hal Berredge, who was playing Lady
Macbeth, came down with a fever and was unable to perform. Shakespeare himself
had to stand in for the role.
In 1937,
when Laurence Olivier took on the role of Macbeth, a 25 pound stage weight
crashed within an inch of him, and his sword which broke onstage flew into the
audience and hit a man who later suffered a heart attack.
Charlton Heston, in an outdoor
production in Bermuda in 1953, suffered severe burns in his groin and leg area
from tights that were accidentally soaked in kerosene.
Hollywood actor Alan
Cumming unearths Liverpool secrets for new Sky show
He's probably best known
for his role in The Good Wife, and he was one of the notable Brit pack to break
America. But now Emmy-nominated actor Alan Cumming has turned his attentions to
snooping around Liverpool.
Alan has been tasked by
Sky Atlantic to meander around the UK, rooting out little hidden gems for its
new eight-part series City Secrets due to be screened in the summer.
And as part of his
quest, he’s been in Liverpool, wandering off the usual tourist trail to explore
a more unusual and interesting side to the city.
Along the way the
Scottish-born Hollywood star crossed paths with a few well-known local names
who offered their views on what gives us our unique character and appeal.
Alan, who’s appeared in
films such as X-Men and Spy Kids, seemed to be making the most of his two days here
as he was spotted on a Shiverpool tour and visiting the Liver Building, Town
Hall and Philharmonic pub.
There, the actor was
more than impressed with the famous toilets, Tweeting a pic of himself with a
highly decorative loo background.
He also headed over to
the party launch of the inaugural Liverpool Art Show at Camp and Furnace where
he chatted to one of the organisers, photographer Matt Ford.
Matt tells Insider: “Sky
originally got in touch with Lucy from dot-art about another event we had, and
she suggested the Art Show. It was very last minute, though, we literally found
out the day before they were coming to film.
“Alan interviewed me and
Lucy and walked around the gallery, discussing the artwork which is about
Liverpool and why it’s such a great creative space.
“He was lovely, and he
seemed really interested in what we were doing.”
In other news ...
STV have shared an entertaining video from their archive - a classic moment from Victor and Barry (starring Alan Cumming)
"It's a cultured city and we don't mean
penicillin."
