Oliver - Black Cats & April Fools - Origins of Old Wives Tales and Superstitions in Our Daily Lives

Break a Leg!

It is considered unlucky to wish an actor good luck before a performance; instead, it is customary to tell him or her to break a leg. The origins and precise meaning of this expression are unclear, and over the years many different experts on superstitions have developed theories as to how it came about. One explanation suggests that, since leg is a euphemism for rope (a taboo word in the theatre as it is on board ships), to tell somebody to break a leg would be equivalent to telling him or her to break the rope holding up the curtain. A particularly good performance, then, would call for the curtain to be opened many times in a row for the actor to re-emerge in front of the applauding audience, putting it at a risk of breaking.

Another explanation for the expression links it back to Ancient Greece, where audiences stamped their feet instead of clapping their hands at the end of a good performance. To tell an actor to break a leg would thus not be referring to the actors leg but to that of his or her viewers who would have to stamp their feet so much watching their performance. This explanation seems unconvincing, however, since the expression seems to exist only in English and not in other Greek-inflected languages.

To eat or drink food made with lemon or milk is considered very unlucky before a performance. The explanation for this superstition is quite simple: eating both substances affects saliva production, which hinders an actors voice and makes a performance weaker.

Shakespeares tragedy Macbeth is considered the unluckiest of all plays to put on stage, forecasting disaster for the company performing it and bringing misfortune to those performing in it. The records show that it is the play during which the largest number of accidents, fires and deaths have occurred, and many famous actors who performed the play are said to have had terrible misadventures following its staging. It is considered very unlucky to say the word Macbeth anywhere in the theatre, but especially in the dressing rooms. The play is supposed to be referred to instead as that Scottish play, and there are various rituals that actors have to abide by if they accidentally say the M word. According to one tradition, whoever says the forbidden word in the dressing room is to leave the dressing room, turn in a circle three times, break wind or spit and then only come back after knocking and asking permission to re-enter. Another commonly cited remedy is to say Angels and ministers of grace defend us!, a line spoken in Act I, sc. iv of Hamlet right after the appearance of the Ghost.

The play is generally considered to be unlucky on account of the appearances of the witches and the occult content of many of the scenes. At the time when Macbeth was first being performed, belief in witchcraft was still widespread and actors may have been afraid of accidentally unleashing demonic forces or conjuring up evil spirits which is why the line from Hamlet would be spoken in protection against any such visitation. Some sources point to a more practical origin for the superstition, however. In Victorian times, theatre managers would close unsuccessful plays and replace them with Macbeth, as it was usually a great success due to its violent and bloody scenes and the fact that it could be learned faster than other Shakespeare pieces since it is his shortest tragedy. To hear the word Macbeth spoken in the dressing room would thus be an omen of very bad luck for actors who risked finding themselves out of work very soon. It is also possible that the bad statistics for the performance of the play may be explained precisely because it was used so often as a replacement and filler in theatre seasons.