Ashland's ‘Macbeth'-themed escape room is the perfect Oregon Shakespeare Festival chaser

Fans of the Bard are likely already familiar with the theatrical superstition connected to one of Shakespeare's most well-known tragedies. As legend warns, speaking the name 'Macbeth' inside a theater — in any context beyond what is strictly ordained in the script — is destined to bring disaster. (I write the title now from the cautious safety of my apartment, though a worryingly short walk to the nearest theater.) Alleged casualties of the curse go back to 1606, when the show was first staged. Incidents have included sudden cast and crew deaths, violent riots and real daggers mistaken for props. Ashland's Shakespearean escape room — coyly called 'The Scottish Play,' to avoid any verbal slips — borrows its lore from a 1937 production of 'Macbeth' at London's Old Vic theater, during which lead actor Laurence Olivier was nearly crushed by a fallen stage weight. Presented by Escape Ashland and designed alongside the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's artistic team, 'The Scottish Play' imagines its guests as a ragtag troupe of understudies. "The Scottish Play" is a "Macbeth"-themed escape room in Ashland. The activity is rich with Shakespearean allusions — and a great way to honor the Bard after a trip to the theater. Turns out, as our host coolly informed us, The Old Vic is super cursed. Breaking that centuries-old hex, naturally, is our job. 'The Scottish Play' took us through a series of four progressively spookier rooms, from decked-out dining halls to dimmer, more cavernous corners. There were locked chests, ghosts and at least one bird-related puzzle. Solving the room was perhaps akin to being thrust into the spotlight of a Shakespeare production with no costumes and no lines — which is to say, thrilling, if lightly panic-inducing. (But, hey, as Shakespeare said, 'All the world's a stage.') Escape Ashland ranks 'The Scottish Play' a 3.5/5 difficulty, which seems a fair assessment. Two of our group had minimal escape room experience, while the other had none, and while finding our way out was certainly tricky, it was doable. Guests technically have one hour to escape. But on a slower day like ours, you likely won't be faulted for taking an extra few minutes. And if you do accidentally utter 'Macbeth' out of turn, don't sweat it. Our trio erred more times than is probably justifiable — once, conveniently timed to the thud of prop dropping from above — and, as far as we know, we haven't been cursed. As per our host's instructions, we followed each slip by spinning three times and (out of respect to Escape Ashland, fake) spitting over our shoulders. Just do that, and you'll be absolved … we hope. 'The Scottish Play,' is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily at 509 Siskiyou Blvd. Costs range from $99 for two people to $28 per person for groups of seven or more. Rooms can be booked online or by calling Escape Ashland at 541-613-6488.