An actor almost died in front of the audience after slashing his throat in a bizarre on-stage mix-up.
Daniel Hoevels’ character was supposed to commit suicide in the drama with a blunt stage knife but had instead been provided with a real blade. He collapsed on stage with blood pouring from his neck and the audience started to applaud the spectacular special effects. It was only when Hoevels, 30, failed to get up to take a bow at Vienna’s Burgtheater in Austria that they realised something was wrong. Now police are investigating their own murder mystery drama – after refusing to rule out the possibility that the stunt may have been an attempt to bump off the actor by a jealous rival.
Police have been told that the knife had been bought at a local store and are asking if props staff forgot to blunt the blade for the performance of Friedrich Schiller’s play Mary Stuart, about Mary Queen of Scots. ‘The knife even still had the price tag on it,’ said one shocked police investigator.
The theatre’s props manager is understood to have been quizzed by police about the knife, reports Austrian daily Osterreich. The actor recovered after emergency treatment to his wound at a local hospital and appeared on stage the next night with a bandage around his neck.
‘If Hoevels had hit an artery or cut only slightly deeper, he would have died on stage,’ a doctor said.
Drama Queen.
Good thing he didn’t have to fall on his sword!
I’ve always wondered how the audience would react to such a situation. Now we unfortunately know.
Sound like a case for Monk. Wait, that was already done.
☠
Look for this to be a Law & Order episode next season.
Method actors…sheesh!
Future Darwin award winner?
#3 – Maybe not the actor. Although whoever gave him the knife should win some sort of Up-and-Coming (as no one actually died) Darwin Award by Proxy…
# 4 Satan said, “#3 – Maybe not the actor.”
I don’t know. If I was him I’d run my finger down the blade before forcefully sliding it across my throat …
Im been in BOTH drama and stage production…
YOU CHECK YOUR GEAR, BEFORE PERFORMANCE..
The KNIFE would have been BOUGHT before the FIRST PLAY had been on stage..and USED many times BEFORE. WHY NOW?
#9 Well assuming it wasn’t an intentional bad act. It’s a knife. The original that had been being used could have gotten lost.
As someone else involved (well, formerly involved) with theatre, I have to agree with ECA. I’ve done dang near every job (lights, sound, props, stage management, directing, assistant directing and acting), and the procedures are simple:
a. Acquire the props long (LONG) before the show opens. The theatres I was in engaged in a tech week, which were essentially dress rehearsals –including ALL props for the show.
b. Ensure security of props at all times. The prop master OWNS the props. Only the prop master (and his/her assistants), and the actor directly carrying a prop onto the stage, are ever allowed anywhere near the offstage prop table.
c. Ensure safety of props which are or imply weaponry or other dangerous objects. Typically this means either using fake knives and starter pistols (where possible), or checking, double-checking and quadruple-checking (including immediately before said prop is carried onstage) that the blades are dulled and (if applicable) guns have blanks.
There was a serious breach here. (Understatement of the year.) The actor, going onstage, often has no time to check the safety — that is the prop master’s sole responsibility. If I were anyone in that production, I’d be terrified to come back to work.
He was supposed to “break a leg” not “slash a throat”….jeez…some people!
# 11 John Rudy said, “The actor, going onstage, often has no time to check the safety ”
I’d NEVER subject myself to an unknown weapon. I’d make time. I think this guy will too, in the future.
Paddy-O:
I’m not familiar with this particular show, so I can’t speak to its timings. However, in most shows I’ve been involved with, the actor truly has no time to get himself on stage, in character.
Generally speaking, my experience has been (and again, I’ve been on both sides of that prop table) that you have not been offstage long, it may or may not involve a quick costume change (never pleasant — I once had to go from dowdy clothes to a tux in 30 seconds), and get back onstage at the appropriate cue. During the hustle and bustle, and trying to remain in character, you simply don’t have time to do much more than receive the prop from the prop master before rushing out.
There has to be absolute trust in the prop master in order for this to work. If there isn’t, then the show gets delayed while an actor re-verifies that the prop master did his or her job. 3 or 4 second delays in a show feel like eternity — both for the audience (wondering what the hell is happening) and for those actors remaining onstage (who are usually in the same boat as the audience).
That said, in my opinion, this actor probably never will go back onstage without manually checking his own props again. (And in all honesty, unless there was a damn good reason for it, he shouldn’t have been making skin contact with the blade anyway. Unless this was theatre in the round or some other environment where the audience is 10 feet or fewer away, no one would know the difference between contact and 1/8″ away.)
Finally, the prop master should have been more than “quizzed.” Either he/she was criminally negligent, or someone wanted this actor to die. Again, props are acquired long before a show run begins — and are used in rehearsals (typically) for at least a week, and often longer, before the show opens. This was a new knife — so what happened? It is possible that something happened to the first necessitating a new one, but if the prop master didn’t have an opportunity to dull it prior to the performance, at a minimum he/she should have had a conversation with the actor and informed him of the new danger. He didn’t, or he didn’t secure his table preventing someone else from placing the blade there, or he deliberately had a hand in it. Frankly, no matter what the answer, that was negligent.
Or maybe the actor just said “Macbeth” too many times in the venue, before the show.
I said it before and I’ll say it again: If I were involved (in any capacity) with that show, I wouldn’t be returning to work.
Where is Miss Marple when you need her?
Couldn’t the actor easily see that the safety was off?
Too many unanswered questions.
There is 1 cause that supersedes our idea of STAGE PROPS..
and thats the IDIOT ASS, that carries his OWN PROPS, and has his OWN.
If he forgets, loses, his prop, HE HAS TO GET A NEW ONE…
Iv had 1-2 that WANTEd to use their OWN props, or thought they could find better..
THEN didnt know HOW safe they were..ACTORS DONT KNOW KNIFES..
Another trick is REALISM, and a fake knife that has FAKE BLOOD…THIS WASNT A FAKE.
I will BET…the ACTOR wanted BETTER, and got a real knife.
ECA:
Ah, yes, I forget not all theatres do operate the same. In the theatres I worked in, if an actor wanted to do something that dangerous and stupid, we said “no,” explained why, and moved on. If he/she insisted, we said no again and considered replacing said actor with someone more balanced. (Well, with one exception. Because of the need for massive, modern and realistic firearms in “Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grill,” one actor — who was the only one who used them — brought in and was solely responsible for a shotgun and 9MM semi-auto, both with blanks. No one was allowed near them but he, and despite some of our concerns … the show went off without a hitch.)
I’ve never had a problem saying no to actors …And obviously for good reason.
Of course, there is the possibility that it was a real suicide attempt?
This was the plot in the first season of “Midsomer Murders”, “Death of a Hollow Man” 1998. I wonder if it is in reruns in Austria?
Paddy said:
“# 4 Satan said, “#3 – Maybe not the actor.”
I don’t know. If I was him I’d run my finger down the blade before forcefully sliding it across my throat …”
Yeah, you’re right. I would do the same if handed a knife to be used as a prop…. although, I don’t think I would “forcefully” slide even a dull prop knife across my throat, even for sake of my art…. I suppose I’d be a crappy actor…
How about just faking it and not really cutting your own throat…? There shouldn’t be a process to follow as far as NOT cutting yourself.
I’m no actor, but I wouldn’t press a knife of any kind into my neck.