David Tennant was forced to leave the stage for the second time in a week during a performance of Macbeth over the weekend.
Last week, it was revealed that the former Doctor Who star had to briefly pause the production of the Shakespeare classic due to a disruption in the audience.
And during Friday night’s penultimate show, David was again told to vacate the stage for around five minutes.
The London Standard has reported this was due to a mid-show switch-up in the cast, with understudy Gemma Laurie stepping in as Lady Macduff after regular performer Rona Morison lost her voice.
One fan who had apparently been in the auditorium wrote on X: “[Rona] lost her voice at the end of a monologue – the last line came out very faint.
“So, just before her next scene someone came in and told David to walk off stage and announced that Rona had lost her voice, so Gemma would be stepping in as Lady Macduff.”
Gemma did a great job standing in for Rona mid performance ???? So second time this week that David was asked to leave the stage - though this time they could time so he was doing anything and it was for less than 5 minutes ???? pic.twitter.com/zxUmXSBPBW
— Anja (@Tyttas) December 14, 2024
Last week’s disruption came when an audience member left to go to the restroom in the middle of a performance, and was told they were unable to return to their seat until there was a break in the show.
The show was subsequently paused for around 15 minutes when the audience member in question took issue with this request, and the situation quickly escalated.
A spokesperson for the play explained: “We can confirm there was an incident at the theatre last night, which made it necessary for the front of house team to request a show stop.
“This is standard practice, in order to deal with the situation as swiftly and effectively as possible, enabling the remainder of the production to continue with minimum impact to both the audience and company.”
