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Tuesday, December 02, 2025
Experience: I was stabbed in the back with a real knife while performing Julius Caesar
Life and style | The Guardian: As someone committed to my craft, I’ve always believed that the show must go on. An accident in my second year of university took it to new extremes. It was the Exeter University theatre society’s annual play at the Edinburgh fringe and I’d landed the part of Cassius in Julius Caesar.
5 comments:
Alex Reinard
said...
I can't imagine how committed this actor must have been to actually be able to withstand the pain and stay in the blackout before running off stage. If it were me, I would have been running off stage the minute the knife entered my back. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, this actor is clearly very dedicated to their craft, but on the other hand, they seemed to be so dedicated that they jeopardized their life because of it. There's just no reason to be using a real knife on stage, especially one that is as sharp as a real life would be in real life. I guess this happened a while ago, so I wouldn't know if it was in the news or not, but I think it should have been. It's performed, like he says, is lucky to be alive, and just because of that this should have been almost as big as the Rust incident.
I think it’s absurd that this university even decided to use real knives in the first place. I think one of the first things that a director and creatives need to think about is the safety of their actors. Using anything that is supposed to be sharp should be replaced with a safe replica, I’m pretty sure the show would still go for that “authentic” look they were aiming for. I’m sure that was extremely scary for that actor, and in no way should he have kept acting and made it clear he was harmed. Either way, I am glad to hear that the actor is okay, but stories like this should hopefully set an example for other theatre companies to follow. Everyone’s safety comes first, no matter how it’ll affect the show. It’s better for a show to be boring than to risk someone’s life and to traumatize the audience.
This is such an interesting article that provides insight into the performer mind-set during a production. I was a little disheartened to see that the only information as to whether or not he had become more safety conscious was the final one liner, but nothing more about advocacy or how it truly changed his approach to weapons onstage. Speaking as someone who worked on a production where an actor was injured by a dulled weapon, I can’t imagine anyone saying that they want to use “real knives” to be “authentic.” That is so absurd and extreme that people think of authenticity in that way. Anything is a weapon if you try hard enough, you don’t need to put any more authenticity behind it once you understand that. You can kill someone with bare hands, so to nonchalantly put real weapons on stage is insane, but knowing that this occurred at a university is even more insane to me. It raises the question that was talked about a little bit last year as far as who’s responsible for looking out for the safety and best interests of the students when they choose not to or forget to watch out for themselves. We can’t prevent every injury or solve every problem, but advisors, directors, and professors at an educational institution should have more interest in the furthering of their students in healthy and safe environments, so they know a bad one when they see it, not because they are used to being in bad environments.
Real weapons should never be utilized onstage. I will die on this hill. Reading this my jaw dropped when I read that the knife went 7.8cm deep that's just over 3 inches. Pocket knives are regulated at 3 inches because longer knives have a higher likelihood of causing life threatening injuries. I almost guarantee that the knife used in this production was longer than 3 inches. Leading to an even scary reality that it could have gone deeper and therefore could have almost certainly ended this young performer's life. I will stand by that no performance no show is worth someone dying for. If the fight scene goes wrong no performer should feel the need that the show must go on. No, we have protocol for that actor to immediately stop the show and the grand drape flies in and they get the care that they need. The actor mindset is something that I don't understand or relate to so I will speak on if we are building things for fake then they need to be safe to use in the fake action meaning that no serious harm can be caused by the action played out or in the design of the knife, weapon of any kind. We as technicians need to ensure safety and this is a huge failure on the properties, directing, and stage management team.
Wow. This is absolute craziness. I'm at a loss for words why on earth people thought it would be a good idea to use real knives in a show. That's an absolute no brainer for this exact reason and case. The whole need for “true authenticity” is so pointless because the audience isn't going to know. Whoever this director was sounds extremely pretentious. Whoever this person's scene partner was is also extremely out of place because how can you not tell that they have pushed a knife in 7.8 centimeters deep!! What!! Reading this article made me cringe a lot because all I can think about is how the blade must have been dirty as well. My main takeaway from this is that there really are some dumb people out there, making executive decisions about people's health for the sake of theatrical “authenticity”. How ridiculous of them and the world.
5 comments:
I can't imagine how committed this actor must have been to actually be able to withstand the pain and stay in the blackout before running off stage. If it were me, I would have been running off stage the minute the knife entered my back. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, this actor is clearly very dedicated to their craft, but on the other hand, they seemed to be so dedicated that they jeopardized their life because of it. There's just no reason to be using a real knife on stage, especially one that is as sharp as a real life would be in real life. I guess this happened a while ago, so I wouldn't know if it was in the news or not, but I think it should have been. It's performed, like he says, is lucky to be alive, and just because of that this should have been almost as big as the Rust incident.
I think it’s absurd that this university even decided to use real knives in the first place. I think one of the first things that a director and creatives need to think about is the safety of their actors. Using anything that is supposed to be sharp should be replaced with a safe replica, I’m pretty sure the show would still go for that “authentic” look they were aiming for. I’m sure that was extremely scary for that actor, and in no way should he have kept acting and made it clear he was harmed. Either way, I am glad to hear that the actor is okay, but stories like this should hopefully set an example for other theatre companies to follow. Everyone’s safety comes first, no matter how it’ll affect the show. It’s better for a show to be boring than to risk someone’s life and to traumatize the audience.
This is such an interesting article that provides insight into the performer mind-set during a production. I was a little disheartened to see that the only information as to whether or not he had become more safety conscious was the final one liner, but nothing more about advocacy or how it truly changed his approach to weapons onstage. Speaking as someone who worked on a production where an actor was injured by a dulled weapon, I can’t imagine anyone saying that they want to use “real knives” to be “authentic.” That is so absurd and extreme that people think of authenticity in that way. Anything is a weapon if you try hard enough, you don’t need to put any more authenticity behind it once you understand that. You can kill someone with bare hands, so to nonchalantly put real weapons on stage is insane, but knowing that this occurred at a university is even more insane to me. It raises the question that was talked about a little bit last year as far as who’s responsible for looking out for the safety and best interests of the students when they choose not to or forget to watch out for themselves. We can’t prevent every injury or solve every problem, but advisors, directors, and professors at an educational institution should have more interest in the furthering of their students in healthy and safe environments, so they know a bad one when they see it, not because they are used to being in bad environments.
Real weapons should never be utilized onstage. I will die on this hill. Reading this my jaw dropped when I read that the knife went 7.8cm deep that's just over 3 inches. Pocket knives are regulated at 3 inches because longer knives have a higher likelihood of causing life threatening injuries. I almost guarantee that the knife used in this production was longer than 3 inches. Leading to an even scary reality that it could have gone deeper and therefore could have almost certainly ended this young performer's life. I will stand by that no performance no show is worth someone dying for. If the fight scene goes wrong no performer should feel the need that the show must go on. No, we have protocol for that actor to immediately stop the show and the grand drape flies in and they get the care that they need. The actor mindset is something that I don't understand or relate to so I will speak on if we are building things for fake then they need to be safe to use in the fake action meaning that no serious harm can be caused by the action played out or in the design of the knife, weapon of any kind. We as technicians need to ensure safety and this is a huge failure on the properties, directing, and stage management team.
Wow. This is absolute craziness. I'm at a loss for words why on earth people thought it would be a good idea to use real knives in a show. That's an absolute no brainer for this exact reason and case. The whole need for “true authenticity” is so pointless because the audience isn't going to know. Whoever this director was sounds extremely pretentious. Whoever this person's scene partner was is also extremely out of place because how can you not tell that they have pushed a knife in 7.8 centimeters deep!! What!! Reading this article made me cringe a lot because all I can think about is how the blade must have been dirty as well. My main takeaway from this is that there really are some dumb people out there, making executive decisions about people's health for the sake of theatrical “authenticity”. How ridiculous of them and the world.
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