Roots
Words on stage
Deepti

Shakespeare’s assertion was that ‘all men and women are players’ in the theatre of life. And, sure enough, one finds that the word ‘theatre’ has wriggled into our vocabulary in so many different contexts that looking at the world, we have to accept the bard’s metaphor for life.

The origin of the word ‘theatre’ is found in the Greek theasthai that meant ‘behold’. Today’s theatre is a building or outdoor area in which plays and other dramatic performances are given. From this denotation, theatre came to be used as an uncountable noun for all the activities associated with it as in ‘doing theatre’. It also came to refer to the body of plays staged at a particular place or time as in ‘inspiring theatre at the festival’. Pedagogy also ‘borrowed’ the word, adapting it to the ‘lecture theatre’ and so did medicine to refer to the ‘operation theatre’. When a word was required for all the activity involved in war, ‘theatre of war’ was coined. This last sense began to be used for ‘weapons used in a particular area’ as in ‘he is working on theatre defence missiles’. Now, let us take a look at some more ‘theatrical’ words.
The ‘fourth wall’ refers to the ‘the imaginary wall between the stage and the audience’. This expression can be traced back to the idea of a stage as a box open on one side through which the audience sees the action. Like so many other such expressions, ‘fourth wall’ has acquired a metaphoric connotation in literature, where it is used to refer to the boundary between fiction and reality.

The word ‘green’ when used as an adjective imparts calm and peace, and perhaps, in the theatre, ‘green room’ is the place where actors can find tranquillity. The origin is not too clear, perhaps it is labelled thus because it was once upon a time, actually painted green to give a respite from the harsh stage lighting. This could be the origin of the word because it is the place in which performers unwind before or after their appearances.