perche si dice merda merda merda teatro attori

Why do actors say “shit, shit, shit” before a show?

The theater it’s full of Very strict “rules”. so as not to attract the bad luck: Woe betide Macbeth, wear the color purple, or say “good luck!” At that time how do you wish good luck to actors and actresses before a show? The traditional Italian phrase – but also French and Spanish – seems strange: you have to say “shit, shit, shit!” or variations on the theme such as “so much shit”. According to tradition, the saying would be a good omen for the success of the show. But why?

There are many possible reasons: the best known and most reliable theory would link the phrase to the European theatrical context between the eighteenth and nineteenth centurieswhen the theater was no longer aimed only at a popular audience but also at a upper and middle class public. These more high-class spectators would have gone to the theater in a carriage – hence the “arched” entrances of many Italian theaters, and not only, designed to bring the horses closer and enter directly through the main doors. So, so many carriages, so many horses, so much manure (so a lot of shit).

The saying would therefore allude to the hope that the show will have great success with the public. However, there are conflicting opinions: the well-known playwright, writer, poet and YouTuber Roberto Mercadinifor example, recalls that the Italian theater is still full of spaces, those of the stalls, which were once without chairs and therefore also for less wealthy spectators, so the “carriages-horses-manure” theory would make little logical sense.

What is certain is that all over the world there are countless variations of these superstitious rituals. The English one – very similar to the German one – wants that instead of the unfortunate “good luck” use the expression “leg break!”, who literally wishes to “break a leg”. An idiomatic phrase with many possible interpretations, ranging from receiving so much applause that he broke his leg, or walking out of the “leg line“, that line behind which you would not get paid.

On the other hand the superstitionthat habit of carrying out some sort of propitiatory rites to bring luck on one’s side, has its own rules, often personal. Many superstitious rites in psychology can all be traced back to the so-called “magical thinking” and have characteristics in common: the most frequent is that of do not allude to luck itselfto avoid the risk of attracting unspecified “evil wishes”. So saying “good luck” would be really bad luck, and it would be preferable to directly wish an unfortunate event: according to some theories, this is the case with the same “good luck” (which for others would instead be a good omen of care and attention). This propitiatory attitude would be all the more frequent for those situations in which one does not have complete control of what will happen, but which must go well: an exam, a competition, a show.