The Scottish play often considered cursed is Macbeth. In theatre tradition, actors and backstage staff sometimes avoid saying its title inside a theatre, referring to it instead as “the Scottish play” or “the Bard’s play.” The superstition is commonly called the Scottish curse.
Shakespeare’s tragedy follows Macbeth, a Scottish general who hears a prophecy from three witches that he will become king. Encouraged by Lady Macbeth, he murders King Duncan and takes the throne. Fear, guilt and ambition then lead him to further violence, making Macbeth a study of political power and moral collapse.
The play draws partly on Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles, published in 1587, but Shakespeare altered the historical material substantially. The real Macbeth was an 11th-century king of Scotland, while the drama intensifies the supernatural elements and compresses events for theatrical effect.
The curse is a stage superstition, not an established supernatural fact. Stories of accidents and mishaps during productions helped sustain it, while the play’s witches and dark imagery made the belief especially memorable. Hamlet, Othello and King Lear are also tragedies, but none is traditionally known as the Scottish play.