The 1849 Astor Place Riot, was it simply caused by Edwin Forrest's raging hatred for William Macready, or was it perhaps caused by bad juju? I believe it was due to witchery, for you see the Astor Place Riot occurred during a showing of "Macbeth". How else would you explain such a tragedy as this? Obviously they were cursed. Because of Macbeth's Astor Place Riot, 22 people were killed, about 36 more were injured, and William Macready strangely quote-un-quote "retired" two years later after being as Brockett said "marred". As for Edwin Forrest, nothing to my knowledge happened to him when he performed "Macbeth" on the same night at the Bowery theatre, but my guess is that Forrest removed the curse from his play. Forrest was sly, and my guess was that he ran out of the theatre, spun around three times, spit on the ground, and shouted out the most fowl word he knew, thus lifting the weight from his shoulders.
The Link Below is a video of the history behind "The Scottish Play"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LKMktAN4hc
Reference: Youtube, The Science Channel, Brockett, and Oxford Reference.
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