Kathleen Mellen’s Best Bets: Two plays: The Scottish one (‘Macbeth’), Hampshire Shakespeare Co. in Amherst; ‘A Fiery and Still Voice: William Cullen Bryant at Home’ in Cummington

THE SCOTTISH CURSE

Don’t utter the name of Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” out loud in a theater — that will spell disaster. To avoid doom, better call it “The Scottish Play.” So goes the superstition that surrounds The Bard’s tragedy, which is now being presented by Hampshire Shakespeare Company. Organizers say they’ve “cut away the emotionally stunted masculinity and militarism that can dominate the piece, and, instead, explore the simplicity and ease of losing yourself to ambition.” Friday-Sunday; July 27-31, 7:30 p.m., Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies, 650 East Pleasant St., Amherst. hampshireshakespeare.brownpapertickets.com

ANOTHER GOOD BET

Enchanted Circle Theater presents “A Fiery and Still Voice: William Cullen Bryant at Home,” a living-history play, Saturday at the William Cullen Bryant Homestead in Cummington. www.thetrustees.org/things-to-do/pioneer-valley