The 19th century theatre made use of stage trap doors to create many of its special effects. Some traps were simply covered holes in the stage planking, but others had special functions: there was the oblong 'grave trap', the 'cauldron trap' through which stage properties rose or sank into the floor, and 'the Corsican trap', named after the play The Corsican Brothers, that allowed ghostly figures to glide across the stage. Trap doors had an important function in pantomime, enabling supernatural characters to suddenly appear or mysteriously vanish. The 'star trap' was particularly effective for surprise entrances by fairies and demons. It was a multi-sided trap, the hole covered by triangular wooden flaps which opened upwards on leather hinges. When completely open the flaps resembled a star, hence the name. The performer stood on a small platform beneath the trapdoor and counterweights attached to the platform were winched up by stage hands. Sometimes as many as six men would be required to lift weights of 200 kilograms. When the weights were released, the platform shot upwards at high speed and the actor was propelled through the trapdoor, appearing to burst through the solid floor. The flaps would fall back into place and were then supported by the platform.

Star traps were extremely dangerous. It was necessary to stand in the exact centre and the performer was reliant on the ability of the stagehands to keep the platform level. It was easy for an unfortunate actor to lose balance and fall against the timbers at the sides of the moving platform. Added to this was danger of injury from the wooden flaps and, once through the trap the actor had to land correctly, and go straight into the scene. Unsurprisingly the number of accidents caused the star trap to fall out of favour but it was still in use in the first half of the 20th century until banned by the actors' union Equity.