Shakespeare 4 Kidz - S4K's Macbeth

IT must be unnerving when famous actors write to congratulate you on your new role � with horror stories of the disasters which hit them while playing the character.

Yet for Jason Lee Scott, who is playing the title role in the Shakespeare 4 Kids production of English theatre�s unluckiest play,Macbeth, it�s almost a daily occurence.

Even West End star Jonathon Pryce wrote with a cautionary tale of his experiences, saying: �Beware the curse of Macbeth! �When I played him in Stratford, before the first night, Lady Macbeth had an accident and fractured her collar bone. �I fell head-first down the stairs onstage and, for the first time, forgot my lines in the middle of a soliloquy. �At the Barbican, I got stuck in the lift with the Three Witches before the England scene and was rescued just in time to make my reappearance. �My cat died and our goldfish was found floating belly up in the fish tank. Apart from that, I really enjoyed it!�

And not only is he looking forward to the part, he is conducting this interview whilst walking up a treacherous ice-bound hill in Southsea � without the aid of a net!

The Birmingham-born actor grins: �I�m literally doing some weird ice skating thing. It�s like glass! We�ve got no snow at all but we�ve got black ice and where I�m staying is on a really steep hill.� Thus far, the curse has not struck?

�Thankfully, no � and I touch wood every time I�m asked that question! �I know, tours in the past, they have had quite a lot of things happen and I tend to carry bad luck around with me so I�m just waiting for my share. �I�m not quite Mr Bean but on days like today where you�ve got an ice covered floors, I can almost guarantee I�ll be the one that slips on it. �But thankfully, it�s normally little things like that. I don�t have huge bouts of bad luck.�

Even past Shakespeare 4 Kids productions of the play have been dogged by ill fortune. �Someone got their jaw fractured, real serious
stuff. �And not only on the Shakepeare 4 Kids tours. It seems to happen too much for it to be coincidence. �But then I think everyone�s
so heightened towards the fact that something could possibly go desperately wrong that you almost pre-empt it and, I think, maybe bring it about yourself to a degree because you are so constantly looking. �Even the tiniest little thing, you put down down to the fact that it�s the show that you�re doing � no, couldn�t possibly be any other reason!�

The legend grew soon after Macbeth was written. Witches were rumoured to have cursed the play. But Jason has his own theory.�I think it was James I. I think, part of the intention was to scare people into doing what they were meant to do. �And because the play carried that kind of feeling, it just became cloaked in mystery and superstition and it�s a self made myth....Ithink. I hope!�

When he first got the call to join Shakespeare 4 Kids, he was playing a very different role � John Lennon in a show called Rock Legends
which was touring South Africa.

�I don�t quite know why but Lennon and McCartney�s music is absolutely massive over there. It was anything between 2,500 to 15,000 audiences in some cases.

�But, as luck would have it, when I got backfrom the job I was doing, a space on the cast had become available.� He played Prospero in The Tempest and found himself hooked on the Shakespeare 4 Kids experience.

�When you get huge numbers of kids reacting almost in the way they would at a football match, it�s rare that you get that kind of response.
It�s quite incredible really. �This time round, we�ve had a few new guys that haven�t worked for the company before and you can�t quite prepare yourself for what it actually is like.�All actors complain at some point about the state of theatre and audiences falling away and you see fantastic theatres becoming Wetherspoons pubs and what have you.

�And this is really where that starts, you know? If you can get kids interested at this age and give them reason to think they�d like to go back sometime in the future, you are almost paying into the pension of theatre of the future.� He feels genuine sympathy for his current
character, the man who would be King.

�I think a lot of men can associate with that character.

�I don�t think he started out as an evil character and I think the downfall leads from thekilling of the King who he sees as a father figure.

�Even though he�s killed a lot in the past, that particular murder is the one that completely unhinges him. It changes something in the way he thinks and, from that point on, it�s all or nothing.�

● The Shakespeare 4 Kids production of Macbeth comes to the Charter Theatre, Preston, next Thursday and Friday January
21 and 22.

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What they say about us:
S4K ROMEO: "I took my Y6 children to the performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Charter Theatre in Preston on Monday (15th September). The performance was outstanding and the children came out of it buzzing. Well done to all the actors and people involved for such an excellent performance."