Scottish Curse Strikes

According to an age-old actor's superstition, uttering the name "Macbeth" in a theater brings ill luck upon the show.

After a disastrous week, the cast and crew of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club's "The Memorandum" at the Loeb Experimental Theater said they blame the "Scottish Curse" for the three cast members taken to the hospital with injuries sustained on the set.

Jason S. Chaffin '00-'01 suffered a sprained ankle and hyper-extended Achilles tendon during rehearsal on Tuesday. Malka S. Resnicoff '00 fell off a table during Saturday's matinee, bruising her tailbone and cutting the show short, and Miriam R. Asnes '02 topped it all off when she punctured her finger while striking the set after the final performance.

Cast and crew members insisted that the injuries associated with the play were not the results of a bad set or untrained actors. Rather, the cast and crew agreed that that the bad luck's true cause was Macbeth's curse.

"I don't know anyone who would actually say the title of that play in the theater; most cast members know that saying it is bad luck. But it could have happened," said Producer Christopher M. Hodge '00.

Lead actor Thomas H. Price '02 agreed. "Our theory is that someone said the name of Macbeth in the theater" and invoked the "Scottish Curse."

When Stage Manager Carrie S. Shuchart '02 was asked about the bad luck she replied," Somebody said Macbeth early on. Was that it?"

The string of accidents began in a dress rehearsal last Tuesday as Chaffin slid down a giant slide that was part of the set. Most cast members descended the slide during the show, using their hands or feet to slow the fall.

According to Hodge, Chaffin was wearing his performance shoes for the first time when he was hurt.

"Before he had been using his shoes as traction, but this time they didn't have any traction," Hodge said.

After Chaffin's fall, crew members took him to University Health Services (UHS) to wait for his diagnosis, while his director prepared to learn the actor's lines. But Chaffin escaped with a walking cast and participated in all of the performances. Hosteler changed the blocking of the show so that Chaffin could bypass the unlucky slide.

Resnicoff was not so fortunate. During a dramatic scene in the first half of Saturday's matinee, she fell from a table onto the stage floor and bruised her tailbone. Although the fall was staged, the pain was not.

According to audience member Kathleen A. Agresta '02, Resnicoff's injury was not obvious from the theater seats.

"She fell and stayed on the ground for a minute or so, then got back up and rejoined the scene. She looked fine but had her hand on her back for the rest of the time. I totally thought she was fine," Agresta said.

But according to Resnicoff, she just barely limped through the scene.

"I made it off the stage and started crying--excruciating pain," Resnicoff said. She left the theater on a stretcher for Mt. Auburn Hospital, while the sound operator, Joshua A. Edelman '00, told the audience that the show would not go on.

The play's third accident hit cast member Asnes as the cast and crew struck the unlucky set on Saturday. According to Asnes, she received a puncture wound to her finger while picking up a sharp metal set piece.

"It was the quintessential end to a bad day," she said.

Asnes headed for UHS as "The Memorandum's" third victim.

Despite Resnicoff's injury, the play made it through its final Saturday night show as the director stepped in for her part.

And although the rest of the cast and crew remained unscathed, Shuchart said that "It will take me a couple of nights to recover, and I wasn't even injured."