There’s a longstanding theatrical superstition that if you merely say “Macbeth” inside a theatre (or perhaps anywhere) you might be cursed by bad luck or some form of tragedy. AI states that the substitute term, for safety’s sake, is “the Scottish play.” Maybe in some circles but hipsters always refer to the Shakespearean tragedy as “Harry Lauder.”
I got this straight from the horse’s mouth of Peter O’Toole, mind. It was during a December ‘80 GQ interview in his Hampstead Heath home. O’Toole had recently suffered through ghastly reviews of an Old Vic production of Macbeth (which I attended) so he was certainly an authority.
