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We say goodbye to our poster-covered green room as refurbishment of the Bloomsbury Theatre continues
At the Bloomsbury Theatre we鈥檙e having some major renovation work done before our grand reopening in Autumn 2018. And while it鈥檚 really exciting to see our facilities given the royal treatment 鈥� which you can read more about here and - it also means we say a fond farewell to certain relics from our past. One such piece of history is these crazy poster collage from the walls of our green room.听
Oh if these walls could speak! We can only speculate as the debauchery that鈥檚 taken place here, and frankly that鈥檚 probably not for a family audience听so we鈥檒l not dwell on it鈥�
It got us thinking though, why is a green room so-called? After a quick google search, we found there are loads of different theories including:
- Cockney rhyming slang for stage is 鈥淕reengage鈥�
- Actors used to prepare for their performances in a room filled with plants. It was believed that the moisture was good for actors' voices.
- A red lamp is lit behind the scenes when recording or broadcasting is happening and a green lamp when the cameras are off or between takes.听
That last one sounds particularly unconvincing, especially because the earliest known use of the term 鈥榞reen room鈥� was in 1678 (before electric lamps), in Thomas Shadwell鈥檚 play A True Widow, which refers to "a green room behind the scenes". But it didn鈥檛 explain why it was a green room and if it was meant literally.
There didn鈥檛 seem to be a definitive answer anywhere we looked. So we decided to throw the question out there and see what answers we could get from some theatre friends of ours. The results are a mixed bag, but some of our favourites include:
听
- Actors backstage who were about to vomit were said to look 鈥榞reen鈥�
- Green = youth. The green room was where understudies to major players/actors would wait for their chance to appear on stage.
- It was where a green sward (piece of fake grass) was stored to the side of the stage, used to signify an outdoor scene during the play.
Some of these sound more credible, but we鈥檙e still no closer to knowing the truth! What do you think?
We鈥檒l be continuing the debate on Twitter, so send us your suggestions @香港六合彩中特网_Culture using the hashtag #whygreenroom #greenroom
