Top five.. jinxed Macbeths

Macbeth is known as The Scottish Play among actors, since to refer to the play by name is believed to endanger the actors' lives. Certainly, history would seem to bear out this suspicion...

1. 1606: The story owes its origins to the first ever production of the play, watched by King James I, in which the actor playing Macbeth fell ill and died backstage. Shakespeare took over.

2. 1849: A US production led to the deaths of 30 people when it turned into a riot. A hundred years earlier, the army had had to control an English production when the cast attacked hecklers with swords.

3. 1937: At a production at the Old Vic, a 25lb weight fell from the ceiling during a performance, just missing Laurence Olivier. Theatre founder Lillian Baylis died the night of the final dress rehearsal. Olivier isn't the only leading actor to narrowly escape death - Orson Welles, Stanislavsky and Charlton Heston have also been affected by the curse of Macbeth - and Baylis not the only non-actor to die - Abraham Lincoln reportedly reread the play the night before he was assassinated.

4. 1947: Harold Norman was killed in a production at Oldham Coliseum during a particularly vigorous fight with Macduff.

5. 1990: The actress playing Lady Macbeth in a production at Hampstead was rushed to hospital when a plastic dagger failed to retract. A year later, a sword flew off the stage at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and hit an audience member in the face.