Shakespeare may have died 400 years ago but he has remained alive in his plays, with his works continually in production around the globe – but they don’t always go to plan.

Your Local Guardian: Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in Macbeth

Double bad luck

In the 19th century, there were two performances of Macbeth being shown at the same time (which is twice the bad luck).

The two directors were having to compete with each other for ticket sales. This competition evolved into losing game when in one of the performances, audience members decided to throw rotten eggs and freshly broken seats at the actors, working as agents for the directors’ feud.

It didn’t only interrupt the play, but came close to cancelling it entirely.

It didn’t stop at that either. The two directors ended up at the centre of a 15,000 strong anti-Britain protest, and one of them fled to New York. Talk about the curse of the Scottish Play!

Your Local Guardian: Thanks to Shakespeare we have the word 'puke' in the English language

Off to a bad start

The very first performance of Macbeth was to be shown in front of King James. Since women weren’t allowed to perform on stage, a young boy was supposed to play Lady Macbeth.

However, he became ill and there was no understudy was available. The play could have finished before it started.

However, the saving grace was the bard without his beard. Shakespeare himself, who knew the role inside out, was the one who performed it for the King. 

Your Local Guardian: Sam Mendes with his awards

Sound of silence

In a 2014 performance of King Lear at the National Theatre, there was a bizarre and embarrassing mid-sentence silence.

Shortly before the interval, the actor Sam Troughton, who was shouting one of Edgar’s speeches, had his voice suddenly cut out in front of an audience of 1,000.

Restoration came with a quick word from the director Sam Mendes (pictured above) and a swap of actors.

Your Local Guardian: “Is this a man who can’t make up his mind I see before me?” the skull of Yorick seems to be saying to the Prince of Denmark

Alas, poor Del Close

The most iconic of Shakespeare’s scenes is where Hamlet talks to the skull of his old clown Yorick. Some people like this scene so much that they want its performance to be the last thing that they do.

The comedian Del Close intended to have his skull used in a production of the scene. Despite his wife’s best efforts, directors of the play said that a real skull would be too brittle for use in the play.

Your Local Guardian: The Globe Theatre

An explosive performance

None of these strange turns in Shakespeare’s plays top the biggest malfunction of all. In 1613 at the original Globe Theatre, in a final performance of Henry VIII, a cannon misfired and at lit up the thatching of the roof.

The fire soon spread and after a while burnt down the entire theatre, which took a year to repair entirely, and was, up until its 1997 revival, largely out-of-use.

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