Sometimes a front-row seat can be a little too close to the action.
On Thursday evening, during the final scene of a performance of “Richard III” at the Schaubühne theater in Berlin, a sword slipped out the cursed king’s hand and struck an audience member in the head.
Luckily for the woman it hit, she was whacked by the sword’s grip, not its blade. Although she sustained a light injury, she walked out of the theater after being treated on site.
The accident occurred when the actor playing the title role, Lars Eidinger, was battling his demons during the production’s sweaty, physical conclusion.
Eidinger is star in Germany, known as much for his work in theater as for film and television productions, including “Babylon Berlin.” His take on of Richard III, which he has been performing on and off for over decade at the Schaubühne, is an audience favorite at the theater, a well-known repertory company in West Berlin. In 2017, the production visited New York and played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
According to the Berlin Zeitung, a daily, which was the first to report on the accident, Eidinger immediately interrupted the performance, apologized to the woman and then asked for the house lights to be turned on.
The theater’s doctor treated the woman, and no ambulance was needed, according to Johanna Lühr, a spokeswoman for the theater. She added that Eidinger had a phone call with the woman on Friday to make sure she was on the mend.
Lühr said that the scene had been designed with a stunt coordinator and was practiced regularly. Despite the slip-up, the theater plans to continue with its regular schedule of shows, she said.
This is not the first case of injury onstage for Eidinger, who is known for his no-holds-barred physical performances. In 2016, the actor told the newspaper Die Zeit that he had once injured himself during a performance of “Hamlet” at the Barbican Center in London, when he slipped, hit his head on a concrete balcony and lost consciousness.
In that case, he eventually continued his performance. The audience, according Eidinger, thought it was all part of the play.
Tatiana Firsova contributed reporting.
Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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