BBC News: Two boys were taken to hospital after receiving neck wounds during an opening night performance of Sweeney Todd at a school in Auckland, New Zealand.
The musical features a barber who murders his customers by slitting their throats and selling their remains to a pie shop.
20 comments:
I actually first saw this article on facebook and assumed it would be popping up on the PTM blog soon. This kind of incident proves the need for thorough safety measures whenever prop weapons are involved, no matter how unassuming the prop may be. Although there aren't many details, my theory is that the McGyvered-nature of the prop is the reason it accidentally hurt them. The more piecemeal something is, the more chance there is that it could come apart in a weird way and injure a student. I'm suprised that the cut was bad enough to put them in the hospital, although that might have been primarily cautionary. I can't imagine being part of the audience or crew and realizing that they weren't acting but were actually hurt-- especially in a high school setting, I feel like that would be pretty traumatizing. Hopefully this story serves as a cautionary tale for any amateur theater situations to check the props thoroughly for any potential health hazards, and if props are homemade to make sure that they aren't too janky.
This is incident is very scary to hear about. As a stage manager this is a huge red flag because I think safety is huge in theatre. There definitely needs to be a lot more care with the props that are being used at this college. When you have weapons on stage everyone needs to treat them with caution and like they could possibly hurt someone. They are not toys even if they look like it. The person using the fake razor blade should have been instructed to barely touch the other actors with the razor blade because though it was not an actual razor blade it did have the ability to cut someone. It should just look like you are hurting the person without actually hurting or touching them at all. These boys are very lucky that they are alive and did not get cut even more. The neck is one of the most sensitive areas on the body and they should have been more careful with pretending to cut another person’s neck. I have never done Sweeny Todd but it has been done many, many times without incidents like this. Hopefully this incident raised awareness of the dangers of using stage weapons and the caution needed with them.
As if recalling the climactic scene in Birdman in which the lead character shoots himself in the head on stage for the sake of realism, prop weapons going too far has happened in the flesh. I can only imagine what it must have been like to have been in the audience and to have the momentary conflict about whether or not it was intentional and real or staged and just frighteningly realistic. I'm also having trouble thinking about what the actors must have gone through, both the ones that cut the throats and the ones whose throats were cut. I take issue with the statement that the blades had "been dulled", because they clearly hadn't been dulled enough to not be sharp. Regardless of whether or not there were issues in rehearsal, this really should have been child-proofed to hell and back, because actors get more and more emphatic when they are actually physically onstage no matter what, so it is no wonder that enough pressure was used to cut the throats. On the bright side, the students are being discharged from the hospital with no serious injuries, but it's still harrowing to imagine coming back to theatre after such an incident.
It is always sad to hear about these accidents that have led to actors, ho totally trusted in their props, get hurt and sent to the hospital. When an actor is on stage, they should have no doubt in their mind that a prop will work or be safe. I think that a lot more care and attention should have been put in to looking after this prop and props like it. Although I am not an experienced prop artist, I think that covering a sharp blade in layers of duck tape and silver paint was not the best way to approach this particular prop, especially since it was going to be in contact with vital parts of the actors bodies. It sounds to me that after several uses, the blade of the razor cut through the many layers of duck tape and came exposed the sharp parts. I think to have avoided this problem, they could have easily made a fake razor or even dulled the blade of the real razor and then covered it in duck tape. Furthermore, no matter the construction of the razor, those supervising like management or the props artists should have checked on the status of each prop every night to look for repairs and make sure each prop stayed in a state that was safe to use. I can't imagine what it would be like to be the actors who were injured and have to come back to the show. I hope that there were a to more safety precautions put in place.
Of all the shows to be affected by this incident, I have to say, at least it’s Sweeney Todd. If any other show had injuries like this, I would be infinitely more worried about the execution of the performance. For me, the murdering montage is something that is susceptible to this kind of thing. I mean, it is still unfortunate that these boys were injured while performing, but that just leaves room for improvement in the ever-growing realm of theatrical performance. While the construction of the prop blade is briefly discussed, I suppose this incident could be chalked up to getting to comfortable with repeated events. For example, Sweeney Todd slices a ton of throats in a single run of the show, let alone multiple rehearsals and performances. With so many successes in the rehearsal and performance process, of course no one really bothered to check the thing that kept working.
Yes, this is a very unfortunate incident and is obviously not something a stage manager would like to deal with, however, there are a lot worse things that could have happened. One of the questions that I don’t think the article really hits or beats around the bush at is who is responsible. I totally understand how the police would classify this as an incident but in terms of the production team and staff there is ultimately someone responsible. There’s a few people involved, from my basic understand of how the running of a show should have had some responsibility in this. The first is the actor themselves who uses the prop. They should check their prop before they go on. If that doesn’t work, the Assistant Stage Manager, and if one was not on the show, the Stage Manager should have looked over the prop table, specifically the dangerous weapons and made sure that they were in proper condition. And lastly, the props master should not have used a real knife, even if it was covered.
There's a television show that I have watched called "Midsomer Murders" that takes place in the English countryside, where this exact thing happens. A razor prop in a show was swapped out with a real one, and an actor ended up accidentally cutting his own throat. That this could actually happen for real is shocking to me: props pass through so many hands and are rehearsed with so many times that having an isolated incident like this is surprising. Usually, if a prop knife is required, a totally fake one is substituted instead or a real knife is ground down to dullness, so that nobody can get hurt within the realm of reason. I'm surprised that they just covered it, and didn't check that it wasn't able to hurt anyone if they were using it in a performance, and especially a school performance. That it managed to get through the props master, rehearsals, stage manager, and actors themselves is astonishing.
OK. WHAT? I honestly don’t understand how this happened… if you’re not using a real razor, how are you cutting someone badly enough that they need to be hospitalized? Was the prop severely damaged? Improperly constructed? I just can’t wrap my head around this. And two people injured? Was there no period of time between the two accidents where someone could have said “wait, something’s wrong”?
A lot of what we do in theatre has inherent danger, but slitting someone’s throat is so out there on the list of extremes. As Kim mentioned in her comment, AT LEAST it happened in a work where someone is cutting someone’s neck… but for those saying “it could be worse” – really? I mean it can ALWAYS be worse. I don’t think that’s what we should be focusing on here. This school doesn’t need excusing. I hope these “investigations” yield some more information than is provided in this (poorly written) article, because like I said, I really can’t fully understand just how these actors got so seriously injured.
I think the most interesting part of this situation is the The head of the college saying “The razor did not have a sharp edge and it had been used numerous times in rehearsals,” like that matters when it still cut multiple necks. Like dude, apparently the precautions you took, even though there were multiple ones, were not enough. I want to know what the post plans are for these situations are. Does a prop artisan get fired? A props master? A stage manager? Maybe firing someone is a bit extreme, but some very clearly didn’t d their job, maybe multiple people, and that completely destroys the trust between a creative team. As an actor if you cut my damn neck open on stage I will be scared for the rest of my life on stage. I am also confused on how this happened twice. If one person gets injured enough to go to the hospital, do you not look at the prop? There were so many failures here.
Who in their right mind thought that it was a good idea to use a real razor in Sweeney Todd? The show is known for the murders that happen with a straight razor so why would you ever buy a real one to use onstage, especially in an educational setting? There are so many alternatives and fake weapons out there that there is never any reason to use something that could potentially hurt someone. Like Scott, I can't really understand how two different people got injured before anyone figured out this was an issue. I think one of the things that's the most baffling about this is that no one on the production team or backstage figured out that the razor could be potentially dangerous. Props and management both should have taken a step back and realized just how harmful the razor could be. With the amount of people that have to handle a single prop, they're lucky that more people didn't get hurt.
When reading this, I can’t help but wonder what exactly happened. The prop didn’t have a sharp edge, but the article doesn’t say what it was other than it being “covered in all sorts of duct tape and silver paper.” That makes me think they took a razor and covered it with duct tape and silver paper so it wouldn’t be sharp. Then it would make sense that eventually the duct tape was worn through in the many rehearsals it was used it, and therefore by the show, there was some exposed blade. But, I don’t see why they’d have something sharp at the core if you’re just covering it in duct tape and paper. At that point, why not cut the razor out of cardboard and then add the silver paper. This just seems like one of those things that shouldn’t happen, though at the same time, given how many productions of Sweeney Todd there are, maybe an accident like this was inevitably going to happen eventually. I hope the actors who were cut by the prop are okay.
I saw this headline on facebook and figured it would show up on the blog. After reading the article I’m still confused as to how this was able to happen; the head of the college is quoted to be saying that it was an isolated accident involving a not-sharp razor blade covered in duct tape and silver paper. I’m wondering how the boys were able to be injured by a prop made out of paper, since I’m assuming these aren’t just paper cuts; did they cover a real razor with tape and paper that wore out during rehearsals? This is so sad because one would hope that a college would be organized enough to ensure the safety of the students in their drama program. I can’t imagine anything like that happening here, but I guess you never expect accidents like this to happen close to home. It’s strange because the other article we read similar to this was about the experimental theater company in which a man accidently hung himself due to poor communication between the director and the actor and the rest of the team. While tragic, in a sense this was expected due to the scattered nature of the company/ show. Something like this that takes place in an educational setting is almost more disturbing, even though the students seem like they will be okay, because it exemplifies how careful schools need to be in order to support and care for their students.
I saw this article pop up a couple of time this past week on Facebook, and I was hoping it would be posted here because I think it is definitely something that needs to be discussed. So many things confuse me about this accident, and I think that is partially because the article is so vague. First of all, was a real razor being used? As in, was it a real razor covered in duct tape that was being used on a high school production of Sweeney Todd? Or was it simply a very poorly made prop? Also, how did this happen to two students? Did they not stop the show after one student get hurt? Or did they stop the show, examine the raazor and decide it was just a random happening and it would not occur again? It makes me so sad that a theatre program in a school setting could be this careless and irresponsible. Every play put on by anyone ever should be as safe as possible. But if a bunch of high school kids are putting on a show that involves a large number of onstage murders, they sure as hell better double check those props. Do better.
I’m with Jacob in having trouble believing the razor was dulled enough or for that matter even dulled at all. The way the article puts it it sounds like they just wrapped a perfectly normal razor in duct tape and paper. If that’s what actually what happened hopefully the police investigation figures it out and the school gets punished because that’s just stupid and irresponsible. If you don’t do anything to blunt it then a straight razor or knife is eventually going to cut through what you wrap it with. On top of that I get wanting to make your props as realistic as possible but there are times when that’s not necessarily the best approach. If you don’t know or aren’t going to take the proper safety precautions, then maybe don’t use real knives for a play that involves people getting their throat cut. Imagine if this situation had gone more badly (which from the sound of it it easily could have) and then having to be the teacher who has to break the news to a student that they just seriously injured or killed their friend. There are times when its ok to use less realistic props, and the biggest is when there’s a safety risk involved. Beyond that how did no one check the prop before its use? If they were using a real razor (which is what it sounds like) then that thing shouldn't have gone anywhere near the stage with out being inspected.
This is just irresponsible! One of my biggest issues with theatre is when there ISN'T A SAFE ENVIRONMENT! First of all, who in their right mind would use a real blade for a school performance? One that would be used on students' throats? Like other comments express, there are times when real weapons can be used on stage if there has been handling training and it doesn't impose a huge safety hazard for anyone on stage or off-stage. But to use a real blade on a persons throat, even if it was wrapped and covered with duct tape. IT'S A BLADE! It's going to cut through the padding no doubt. Also, how much pressure was the actor putting on the blade? Enough to get two students hospitalized. This goes back to handling training! Obviously they didn't practice enough to a point where hurting someone was out of the question. This whole situation just upsets me. The lack of responsibility is just mind boggling.
This is so scary. I've seen the film Sweeney Todd and I couldn't even finish the whole movie because of how gross and violent it was. It's hard to imagine having students actually hurt while acting this out. I wish this article gave more details about how it actually happened, but I think the incident alone tells us how important safety is. The fact that the prop was "covered in all sorts of duct tape and silver paper" sounds very sloppy and makes me wonder if they had any idea what they were doing. There are so many things that could go wrong during a performance, and the safety/reliability of props should definitely precede how realistic it looks. I remember when I was on run crew for Lord of the Flies, one night one of the actors got hit by a long stick that another actor was holding because one of them stood too close to the other compared to how they normally rehearsed. The prop was completely harmless and the actor was fine, but that just goes to show how when actors are in the moment they can do things differently, and even small things such as standing a slightly different position can get them hurt. It really is the school's responsibility to make sure that their students are in a 100% safe environment when they are performing, especially when it comes to a violent show like Sweeney Todd.
First of all, what. Nothing in this article really seemed right to me, from the fact that they called this an “isolated incident” to the fact that the “prop” was actually real. My question is, how is this an isolated incident when two people were injured? How did that happen? Did they just continue on with the show after the first person got hurt??? Another thing. Proper safety precautions were (obviously) not observed with the fact that the prop was real, just covered with “all sorts of duct tape and silver paper”. Just no. Props, especially fake weapons with the real potential to hurt someone, should be carefully checked every night to make sure that nothing like this never happens. I hope that the two actors who were hurt are okay, just as I hope that this theatre company learned their lesson on prop weapons and safety.
This is the first time that I have ever seen New Zealand come up on the news page and of course it isn’t a positive thing. My dad is from NZ and I was lucky enough to spend my winter break visiting this beautiful country. It is tragic to see that students are getting injured while on stage, I would hate to see these events occurring more often in education theatre giving it a bad reputation. Sadly, while I was over there I wasn’t able to see any theatre but I think If I were to the most interesting differences would be the accent and how the director chooses to manipulate that. I hope that even after this tragic event these two 16 year old boys will continue do theatre and not let this tragic event stop them from performing. One of the biggest things we talked about in props class was liability and how to make sure that you as the props master can’t be liable for such events. I am curious who is taking the accountability for this one.
This event has been baffling me since I first heard about it, for so many reasons. First of all, this is a high school. Why are we applying safety measures to a real blade instead of using a fake one?! Even here for CMU's production of Sweeney we had a wooden razor painted silver (now being used in Plague). Second, I cannot stop wondering about the actor who actually did the cutting. Did he not...realize...that he just cut someone's throat? And then, did he not realize **the second time**? This is the most horrifying thing I can imagine, for all three of those actors, but I still cannot wrap my head around why there isn't more investigation going on. Those kids could have been killed. Slaughtered in front of their parents and classmates. Who is to blame here? Everyone keeps acting as though this were an accident that could have happened under any circumstance, but that is not true. There was negligence from more than one party here, and if I were one of those boys' parents, I would be asking some serious questions of both the faculty and whoever could have altered that razor blade. It seems like no one is wondering whether this was really an accident, and I would like a little more investigation.
When I first heard about this story on the day that it happened, I really just couldn't believe that it was an accident. If the razor really had been wrapped up as much as the principal of the school said it was, there is no way that those two actors would have suffered those types of wounds. Not to mention the fact that there should never have been a real razor on stage in the first place, particularly if the razor, in the show, was being used as a weapon TO SLIT OTHERS THROATS. It just seems like a total oversight on all levels. I'm surprised the actors in the show weren't concerned. Also, how in the world did this happen twice? Wouldn't the actor playing Sweeney have noticed that he cut one throat? Wouldn't the actor who had their throat cut have said something to stop the show? There is a lot about this that still seems fishy.
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