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Monday, March 21, 2022
Elf the Musical star sues for £1.7m after on-stage injury 'robs' him of West End career
Mirror Online: The 40-year-old, who played Ferrell's character Buddy the Elf, was standing on a rotating ladder while performing a musical number and decorating a huge Christmas tree when it fell and crashed on top of him, causing permanent damage to his ankle.
6 comments:
Jessica Williams
said...
This is really terribly sad to read, the actor’s statements about the consequences of this terrible accident on his career makes me so very disheartened and I feel a lot of sympathy for him. This is why, in my opinion, a larger focus needs to be placed on safety in shows that are on such a large scale as this. This, unfortunately seems to be a consistent problem in shows like these. I can’t help but be reminded of the whole Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark series of fiascos that ended in a lot of similar lawsuits and terrible injuries. This problem is even further highlighted when these injuries end actor’s careers in such a bombastic way as the actor that is at the core of this story in regards to Elf the Musical. I can’t help but feel even more upset when I remember that this show is a big family show that parents take their young children to to have fun and for them to have to witness this poor man be injured in such a depressing way really makes me sad.
This is truly horrible and I hope this actor gets compensation for that. For such a cutthroat industry such as theatre, and being an actor as well, they can get replaced super easily. All of our jobs as production crew is to make everything as safe as possible for the people on stage. I hope that this person gets the compensation that they deserve, and that those who are responsible are held accountable. Likely probably not, but it so so sad to hear that this was a career ending injury. There is a sense of trust the actors put on us to make sure that the enviornment that they are interacting with is safe and stabile. There is a reason that there are a million rules in this industry that ensure that the stage that is built is as safe as possible. Those rules must not be looked over for this reason, especially because, as you can see, it can cause serious and life altering consequences for those who are hurt.
There is often a sense in theater that risk and danger is a part of the work of the actor, which is absolutely incorrect. If this incident had ended slightly differently, Forster or any other performer could have been killed or even more seriously injured. From the details in this article, it’s unclear whether or not the production itself can actually be blamed. The ladder did not meet commercial standards, but in theater, we make things to different standards than those conventionally found, and those things are often tested and rehearsed with far more rigorously as a result. Lack of rehearsal has also been vehemently denied. The fact is that a person was seriously injured and will no longer be able to continue his performance career. Whether this was the result of negligence on set or rather a fluke incident, more should be done to protect the safety of performers in theater.
Injuries and death are preventable things, and should not be a normalized part of working in the theatre industry. This is a grim reminder of how important safety measures are in the workplace. This also reminds me of the trust we put in each other as theatre artists to keep each other safe. When working in theatre, you are not only often responsible for your own safety, but for others. You need to consider how your actions affect the whole production, as work is very interdisciplinary. Is your set safe for people interacting with it? I am someone who used to (especially in my high school theatre experience) often ignores safety measures when working. If the method of which I was using to approach a task was more efficient or achieved my goal at hand better, but was unsafe, I did not care and would work recklessly. At Carnegie Mellon, we have stronger safety regulations, and I have been more aware of abiding by them.
I feel like in the theater industry, the rigorous pace of most productions makes it so that safety can be sometimes compromised, even if it is emphasized as one of (if not the most) important aspect of any show. Stunts like having actors jump around on top of spinning ladders honestly already sounds incredibly risky, and without a lot of safety systems and contingency plans it no doubt will be very dangerous for the performers involved. This does really make me question what the safety measures taken prior and during this stunt looked like; it was not clarified in the article what actually caused the ladder to “become unstable” and fall, which is extremely concerning as well. Luckily in this particular incident, no one was killed or dealt a more serious or crippling injury, but it is likely that if not for Ben Forster’s quick reflexes, a more fatal accident could have occurred.
It is very unfortunate to hear that Ben Forster is still facing some physical and psychological issues due to the incident. From my limited perspective, it seems that the cause of the accident may be complex. While it is unfortunate that Forster is still facing difficulties, it seems to have been an accident caused by a domino effect. The ladder hitting an actor's foot could be because that actor was a swing so they didn’t know their foot needed to be two inches to the left, or the actors moving the ladder were half a beat ahead. Nonetheless I think this is something the industry needs to face: isn’t providing psychological services similar to providing physical therapy? Obviously not every production needs a therapist on site, but for instances like this one, I think companies should provide, or at least fund, psychological services for Forster. He clearly has PTSD from the incident, but the good news is that it is something he should be able to work through with the help of trauma focused therapy.
6 comments:
This is really terribly sad to read, the actor’s statements about the consequences of this terrible accident on his career makes me so very disheartened and I feel a lot of sympathy for him. This is why, in my opinion, a larger focus needs to be placed on safety in shows that are on such a large scale as this. This, unfortunately seems to be a consistent problem in shows like these. I can’t help but be reminded of the whole Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark series of fiascos that ended in a lot of similar lawsuits and terrible injuries. This problem is even further highlighted when these injuries end actor’s careers in such a bombastic way as the actor that is at the core of this story in regards to Elf the Musical. I can’t help but feel even more upset when I remember that this show is a big family show that parents take their young children to to have fun and for them to have to witness this poor man be injured in such a depressing way really makes me sad.
This is truly horrible and I hope this actor gets compensation for that. For such a cutthroat industry such as theatre, and being an actor as well, they can get replaced super easily. All of our jobs as production crew is to make everything as safe as possible for the people on stage. I hope that this person gets the compensation that they deserve, and that those who are responsible are held accountable. Likely probably not, but it so so sad to hear that this was a career ending injury. There is a sense of trust the actors put on us to make sure that the enviornment that they are interacting with is safe and stabile. There is a reason that there are a million rules in this industry that ensure that the stage that is built is as safe as possible. Those rules must not be looked over for this reason, especially because, as you can see, it can cause serious and life altering consequences for those who are hurt.
There is often a sense in theater that risk and danger is a part of the work of the actor, which is absolutely incorrect. If this incident had ended slightly differently, Forster or any other performer could have been killed or even more seriously injured. From the details in this article, it’s unclear whether or not the production itself can actually be blamed. The ladder did not meet commercial standards, but in theater, we make things to different standards than those conventionally found, and those things are often tested and rehearsed with far more rigorously as a result. Lack of rehearsal has also been vehemently denied. The fact is that a person was seriously injured and will no longer be able to continue his performance career. Whether this was the result of negligence on set or rather a fluke incident, more should be done to protect the safety of performers in theater.
Injuries and death are preventable things, and should not be a normalized part of working in the theatre industry. This is a grim reminder of how important safety measures are in the workplace. This also reminds me of the trust we put in each other as theatre artists to keep each other safe. When working in theatre, you are not only often responsible for your own safety, but for others. You need to consider how your actions affect the whole production, as work is very interdisciplinary. Is your set safe for people interacting with it? I am someone who used to (especially in my high school theatre experience) often ignores safety measures when working. If the method of which I was using to approach a task was more efficient or achieved my goal at hand better, but was unsafe, I did not care and would work recklessly. At Carnegie Mellon, we have stronger safety regulations, and I have been more aware of abiding by them.
I feel like in the theater industry, the rigorous pace of most productions makes it so that safety can be sometimes compromised, even if it is emphasized as one of (if not the most) important aspect of any show. Stunts like having actors jump around on top of spinning ladders honestly already sounds incredibly risky, and without a lot of safety systems and contingency plans it no doubt will be very dangerous for the performers involved. This does really make me question what the safety measures taken prior and during this stunt looked like; it was not clarified in the article what actually caused the ladder to “become unstable” and fall, which is extremely concerning as well. Luckily in this particular incident, no one was killed or dealt a more serious or crippling injury, but it is likely that if not for Ben Forster’s quick reflexes, a more fatal accident could have occurred.
It is very unfortunate to hear that Ben Forster is still facing some physical and psychological issues due to the incident. From my limited perspective, it seems that the cause of the accident may be complex. While it is unfortunate that Forster is still facing difficulties, it seems to have been an accident caused by a domino effect. The ladder hitting an actor's foot could be because that actor was a swing so they didn’t know their foot needed to be two inches to the left, or the actors moving the ladder were half a beat ahead. Nonetheless I think this is something the industry needs to face: isn’t providing psychological services similar to providing physical therapy? Obviously not every production needs a therapist on site, but for instances like this one, I think companies should provide, or at least fund, psychological services for Forster. He clearly has PTSD from the incident, but the good news is that it is something he should be able to work through with the help of trauma focused therapy.
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