Will 'The Scottish Play' Escape Its Curse?

Among actors, “Macbeth” is known as “The Scottish Play.” Any mention of the cursed tragedy’s title inside a theater is taboo—and for good reason, too.

Bad luck and disaster often seem to follow the production, dating back to 1607.

During the first performance of William Shakespeare’s masterpiece, which is set in medieval Scotland and charts the bloody rise to power and tragic downfall of the warrior Macbeth, the playwright himself supposedly played the role of Lady Macbeth when the designated actor became inexplicably feverish and died backstage. In 1672, the actor playing Macbeth in an Amsterdam production accidently substituted a real dagger for a blunted prop and actually killed the performer portraying King Duncan in front of a spellbound audience. On the opening day of a London run in 1703, England was hit with one of the most violent storms in its history.

On April 9, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln read passages from “Macbeth”—those following King Duncan’s assassination—aloud to some friends. Within a week, he himself was assassinated.

In a 1942 production in England headed by John Gielgud as Macbeth, three

actors died and the set designer committed suicide. On a Thursday night performance in 1947 on an English stage, actor Harold Norman was stabbed during the final sword fight in Act 5 and died of his wounds. On Thursdays, his ghost is now said to haunt the Coliseum Theatre in Oldham, England where the fatal scene was played.

And in 1953, actor Charlton Heston suffered burns to his groin and thighs when his tights, which had been accidently soaked in kerosene, burst into flames when a gust of wind blew smoke and flames into the audience during a production in Bermuda.

All that said, the founders of the newly formed Round Table Theatre Company & Academy aren’t afraid, husband-and-wife team Tristan and Morgan Vaughan said during a telephone interview last week. The East End classical ensemble will launch its company with a semi-Equity production of “The Scottish Play” on Friday, January 11, at LTV Studios in Wainscott.

“We’ve been joking about that because it’s the cursed play. Like, why did we do this to ourselves?” Ms. Vaughan said. “The biggest reason is because we both know it so well. And also, for me, my feeling about it was I really started thinking about [what] ambition in our present culture says, ‘Whatever it takes, do it. To get rich, to get famous, the ends justify the means.’ And I think that’s what ‘Macbeth’s’ warning us against.”

Not to mention the side effects of the curse. A week out from opening night, company members are already feeling them.

“We were initially going to do it at Halloween, but our friend who was going to play Macbeth got sick and couldn’t do it,” Ms. Vaughan said. “Then we had to postpone it. We were going to switch the show, but our friend Gary Logan from the Academy for Classical Acting in Washington, D.C. said, ‘Oh, I have this guy who can play Macbeth,’ and we couldn’t be happier with him.”

The actor is Australian-born Jeff Keogh, a fellow ACA graduate living in Washington, D.C. who sprung at the chance to portray Macbeth for the first time, he wrote in an email last week. At press time, he was recovering from the flu.

“It is a wonderful challenge,” Mr. Keogh said of his character. “I think Macbeth is a relatively simple man who finds himself in circumstances that are beyond his capabilities to deal with. He is a warrior who leads on the field, not a leader of a nation. He embarks on a course of action that he is unprepared for ... I think we can all relate to someone who has made poor decisions about the course of their lives and then has to live with the consequences, without going to the extremes of Macbeth, of course.

“When we are not on the right track, life can spiral out of control and we can lose our way,” he continued, “along with it our friends and loves, and our compassion for others and ourselves.”

Mr. Vaughan—who is working both sides of the stage as director and in the role of Malcolm, King Duncan’s son—is striving to paint Macbeth in a more sympathetic light, at least in the beginning. And Ms. Vaughan, who will portray Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth, is also taking a few creative liberties.

“It’s a role I was consistently cast as at various schools and when I was in ACA,” she explained. “The biggest challenge I have with her is I really don’t want her to be the Evil Queen from ‘Snow White.’ You could so easily fall into playing her as this conniving, horrible wench. What Shakespeare meant her to be is a complex person, which we all are. Shakespeare wrote humans. He didn’t write characters.”

That is part of the beauty of the master playwright, actor Josh Gladstone agreed during a telephone interview last week while taking a break from the ski slopes at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid while on vacation with his family. Mr. Gladstone was eager to talk “Macbeth” and his roles—Macbeth’s cordial cousin, Ross, and the porter, “an incredibly lecherous drunk,” he said.

“As an actor, you’re constantly accessing parts of yourself,” he said. “What do I know about drunkenness and lechery? Probably a few things, so you access that and have fun with it. He’s a pure release of id and Ross is a diplomat and very contained and constantly positioning himself with whoever’s in power. He’s a political animal. Any chance I get to be involved in Shakespeare, I’m happy to do it.”

He took a deep breath of mountain air and said, “It’s the language that’s so beautiful. It’s such a joy. It’s like playing music. You can pick up a score by some rinkydink composer or you can pick up something by Beethoven. It really gives your instrument a chance to sing. It’s like, I’m on a ski slope right now. It’s like skiing down the expert’s trail.”

At LTV, the 15-member cast will play their roles not on a raised stage but on the floor in a thrust configuration surrounded by an audience of about 100 on three sides and set against a screen projecting original artwork by East Hampton artist Brian Leaver.

“If people want to have a real theater experience, they’re going to get one,” Mr. Gladstone said. “And it’s in January! How often do you get a chance to see quality theater in January? I think the audience is going to feel much more in on the fight scene with this production because they’ll be right where the swords are swinging.”

Fingers crossed no one gets stabbed.

The Round Table Theatre Company & Academy will stage “Macbeth” on Friday, January 11, and Saturday, January 12, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 13, at 2 p.m. at LTV Studios in Wainscott. Additional performances will be held on Friday, January 18, and Saturday, January 19, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 20, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 and $15 for students and seniors. For more information, call 537-2777 or visit roundtabletheatrecompany.org.