Writer: Alistair Smith, The Stage
A couple of weeks ago, in our Green Room discussion, the panel reflected on their experiences of show stops.
Reading it at the time made me think about my own – and I realised that, considering how often I attend the theatre, I’ve encountered remarkably few.
The last one I remember was at the end of last year: a planned on-stage fire didn’t extinguish properly, forcing stage management to intervene and clear the smoke. Before that, I genuinely can’t remember how long ago the previous one was.
Lately, though, they seem to be everywhere.
Most shockingly, the Dolly Parton musical Here You Come Again has reported having had to stop mid-show to eject theatregoers who were shouting homophobic abuse at the stage.
Meanwhile, the West End transfer of the Almeida’s production of The Years has been repeatedly interrupted – particularly during its pivotal abortion scene.
At a press preview I attended last Friday, there was, indeed, a roughly 15-minute show stop at this moment in the performance.
Colleagues mentioned that earlier in the week, another performance had experienced two shorter stops during the same scene.
The one I witnessed was striking. Actor Romola Garai, at the centre of the scene, stepped to the side of the stage with her four fellow cast members while stage management addressed the disruption, which seemed to originate in the upper circle. For 15 minutes, Garai stood still, arms and legs covered in stage blood, waiting in full view of the audience, her face a mask.
When the situation was resolved, she and her castmates applauded their stage management team before she calmly returned to the centre of the stage, took a deep breath, and resumed the scene seamlessly.
It was an extraordinarily intense moment and the sheer resolve and technical precision required to pause mid performance during a scene such as this and then restart as if nothing had happened was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen in a theatre.
Actors are often unfairly stereotyped as fragile, unreliable, or self-indulgent – the ‘luvvie’ cliché. But time and again, I’m reminded that they are among the most resilient and supportive people you will ever meet.
At the end of the performance, the five actors gathered in a tight huddle on stage – a simple yet moving display of mutual support – before taking their bows.
The Years is a fantastic production, a testament to the power of live theatre and a reminder of the extraordinary strength of those who bring it to life.