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Audience members at a show at the Camden Roundhouse in London have been injured after a set collapsed on them during a performance on Friday evening (17/01/14).

The venue was presenting Argentinean company ‘FuerzaBruta’, in a production in which audience members take part in a promenade performance and walk beneath acrobats suspended above them.

However, three audience members were injured as a large piece of set fell onto theatre technicians and audience members.

This is the second time that a London theatre audience has been injured in less than a month – on 19 December, audience members at the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue were injured when part of the ceiling of the period theatre came away and fell into the stalls and circle seats, leaving debris strewn all over the auditorium.

It is thought heavy lighting gantries were fixed to the ornate ceiling of the Apollo Theatre, which was previously owned by Lord Lloyd Webber. Around 80 people were injured as a result of falling plaster and wooden beams as well as heavy lighting equipment, including four people who were seriously injured.

The audience had been watching a performance of ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time’ and some thought the sounds of creaking which preceded the roof falling in – and the actual ceiling falling in – were part of the special effects of the show. Some audience members reported hearing water dripping before the Apollo Theatre’s ceiling collapsed – heavy rain had fallen before and during the show.

On Friday at the Camden Roundhouse, the area of set which fell was a sail on which acrobats were spinning, according to one audience member.

London Ambulance crews attended on Friday night and took the three casualties to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where they were treated for minor injuries.

A spokesman for the Roundhouse theatre called the incident “extremely regrettable”.

The scene which involved the scenery was omitted from the show at the Roundhouse on Saturday evening while investigations took place into what caused the incident.

A spokesman for the Roundhouse told BBC News that a piece of moving stage equipment on which two artists were performing “suffered a technical failure and fell slowly into an area where audience members were standing”.
“The equipment was brought in for the production and was not part of the Roundhouse structure,” said the spokesman.
“The show was stopped and the performance space was cleared immediately.
“The Roundhouse is committed to the safety and wellbeing of its audiences – and undertakes rigorous risk assessments for all of the shows that take place here.”

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