14. When “Go Kill ‘Em” as an Encouragement to Actors Turns Literal
“Break a leg” in showbiz wishes the addressee success during a performance, not that he or she would literally suffer an accident onstage that requires a cast and crutches. Similarly, the expression “go kill ’em” for comedians does not urge the comic to murder the audience, but to kill them with laughter – figuratively, not literally. However, that was not the case for an eighteenth-century comedic troupe whose theatrical performance in 1782 ended up literally killing an audience member with laughter.
The tragicomic event occurred during an April evening that year when a Mrs. Fitzherbert went out with some friends to see The Beggar’s Opera on Drury Lane, in London. The play starred a popular actor named Charles Bannister, and when he appeared on stage in drag, portraying a character named Polly Peachum, the entire audience was thrown into fits of laughter. A print of Bannister as Polly Peachum gives a hint of what caused the extreme mirth. In the guise of the charming Polly is a lantern-jawed and poorly shaved middle-aged man, in a voluminous dress and holding a fan, staring deadpan.