Do you really want me to break a leg?

The world of theatre is full of odd and rather eccentric traditions, phrases and rituals many of which have been out of date for several decades but they have left a legacy in the theatrical industry. You may know the sayings but not the reasons actors abide by them so here’s a quick rundown of the most common ones.

It’s unlucky to whistle on stage and this harks back to the early days of theatre when sailors were used as backstage crew while their ships were in port. Sailors knew how to rig and change scenery and this is why we use the terms ‘crew’ and ‘rigging’. They also used a series of whistles to communicate scene changes and if actors were to whistle on stage then they might confuse the cues. Whistling on stage is still deemed bad luck even though – now in the 21st Century – we use headsets to speak to each other backstage.

When people use the term ‘step into the limelight’ it refers an early type of stage lighting where lime was heated until it glowed and illuminated the stage. The stars of the show would step into the limelight to be seen and a phrase was born…

Actors often wish each other luck by saying ‘break a leg’ and there are a few theories as to the origin of the phrase. The first is that it’s bad luck to say good luck so the opposite would be to wish someone to break a leg. Another is that when an actress does a courtesy at the curtain call she is breaking the line of her leg so you’d hope she breaks a leg on stage. Another refers to the narrow cloths at the side of the stage that are called ‘legs’. If the cast get several encores then the legs will have to be raised and lowered many times so if they’re lucky they’ll have so many encores they’ll break a leg.

A tradition that we stick to here at the Coliseum is to not say the last lines of a pantomime production during rehearsals. When we come to the end of a panto dress rehearsal and the characters wrap up the story with rhyming couplets, the cast just say “dah dee dahs” rather than the actual lines. This is because the show isn’t complete without the audience so it’s unlucky to finish without them. It makes for an interesting experience for someone who’s watching the rehearsal and doesn’t know this tradition.

There are many more of these traditional superstitions and sayings so next week I’ll tell you about a few more.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director