Safety curtain

/sˈeɪfti kˈɜːtən/

[noun]

Safety curtain

[NOUN]

a thick heavy curtain in front of a stage in a theater that could be lowered as a precaution in case of fire

Examples

1. Though Temple frequently acted as characters far advanced beyond her age, there was no excuse for Greene's statement of "her admirers, middle-aged men and clergymen, respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed with enormous vitality, only because the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops between their intelligence and their desire."