Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Break a Leg!


The other day I posted a couple of limericks here relating to the Rugby World Cup.

Just while I'm in limerick mode, a friend tweeted me that typical good luck greeting - Break a Leg! - in regard to The Mousetrap.   It's a very peculiar thing to say to anyone, let alone an actor - the last thing an actor wants is more drama!   So here's my response, limerick-wise:

When supporters say Break a leg,
Actors feel they’ve got egg
On their faces and
Go through their paces and
Hope it won’t be on one peg. 

For anyone who's interested in following up the possible origin of this peculiar expression, check out the page focused on it in the Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms. 

2 comments:

Kay Cooke said...

Very interesting! I must get cracking on the limerick-ing challenge (or maybe haiku is more my style).

Mike Crowl said...

Limerick or Haiku - take your pick! Certainly the latter fits more easily into a Tweet...

The limerick above is a little irregular in that the lines run on...however there are precedents, such as this piece of nonsense by
Elliott Moreton:

There once was a fellow from Xiangling
Whose greatest delight was in mangling
Poems. He would drop
Words between lines and lop
Their ends off, and leave readers dang