A male audience member yells at the 'Therese Raquin' actress and tosses a bouquet of flowers onto the stage.
- Oct 3, 2015
AceShowbiz - An audience member disrupted Keira Knightley's Broadway debut in Helen Edmundson's play "Therese Raquin". As the play began, a man from a balcony yelled at the actress who played the title role, "Keira, none of this is real!" before later shouting, "Will you marry me?"
Knightley and her co-star, Gabriel Ebert, ignored the rude man and continued with the play as if nothing happened. Before the man was ushered out of the building by security, he managed to grab a bouquet of flowers from under his seat and threw it at the actress.
"Five seconds! You have five seconds! All it takes is five seconds!" the persistent male audience shouted, apparently still hoping for the actress' answer. The flowers landed with a thud on the stage but Ebert quickly kicked them off, drawing a round of applause from the audience.
According to New York Times, the man was taken to a hospital for mental evaluation by New York City police who arrived on the scene after notified of the disturbance. While he was neither arrested nor charged with a crime, an extra security will be added to the theater on Friday.
A spokesperson for Roundabout Theater Company said, "Roundabout takes the safety of their actors and audiences very seriously and extra security will be added beginning tonight. For obvious reasons, we cannot comment on the exact nature of the additional security measures."
