The show is said to be cursed - bad things will befall those associated with the play, especially those who play the title role. Ostroska suffered a heart attack in the second act of the opening-night performance and collapsed onstage. If you do happen to utter the forbidden name, there are different methods of making things right. Simon Russell Beale, who plays Hamlet in the British National Theatre production coming to town later this month, espouses one of the most popular. I have to say, 'Come in,' and then they have to spit and then swear.
Some superstitions seem to have their base in common sense.
Since most theaters don't have windows, and thus no source of natural light, ghost lights are also a pretty handy way to make sure the first person in doesn't injure himself fumbling for a light switch. Whistling backstage is also verboten, a superstition that probably hearkens back to the days when sailors, with their knowledge of knots, were used to run the backstage rigging. In the days before electronic headsets, the salties would signal scene changes to each other by whistling. An errant toot could inadvertently bring the Scene II set crashing in on someone's head. The history of other superstitions is lost to posterity.