STAGE ASSAULTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4156, 16 July 1874, Page 3

STAGE ASSAULTS.

Mr. Barry Sullivan has been summoned before the Police Court at Liverpool for an assault upon a stage carpenter. Our old friend was playing Bichard 111. at the time, and was so wrapped up in the conception he had formed of the overbearing attributes of the crooked-backed tyrant, that for the moment the actor was lost in the king. Everyone knows the scene in which Eichard offers his kingdom for a home, and the necessity there is at this portion of the tragedy to keep up the excitement by an imposing display of warriors and the prompt shifting of the scenes. It was at this juncture that Eichard, sword in hand, was waiting at the wings for a change of scene. The trumpets brayed, the drums rolled, but the scene remained unmoved. The prompter was mad with rage. “ Hoy !to the fore there !” he shouted. “The scene ! the scene !” hut the carpenter was so lost in admiration of the fight that he forgot his duties, until a sharp slap upon the back from the monarch’s sword brought him to his senses, and warned him that “the stage was waiting.” This was the assault complained of, and the Magistrate, taking all the circumstances into account, let the tragedian off with a fine of ss. and costs. In the excitement of acting tragedians are very liable to lose their tempers. Upon one occasion, when Macready was playing Macbeth, the man who had to prepare the “blood” in the murder scene, omitted to have' it ready. On the instant the enraged actor tapped the man’s claret, and, returning to the stage with his hands covered with blood, be exclaimed, “ I have done the deed ! dids’t thou not hear a noise !” “I heard the owl shriek,” is the reply ; and the man goes by the name of “The Owl” to this day.