Hundreds of people were evacuated from a West End theatre this evening after noise from the speakers made some people fear the ceiling was collapsing.
One person tweeted there was a “mass rush for the exit” at the Garrick Theatre after a loud “creaking” noise from the speaker system.
Members of the audience tweeted photos of them outside the venue after an evacuation which happened halfway through the first act of the play Red Velvet, starring Adrian Lester.
Rich Macmillan tweeted: “Just been evacuated from the Garrick theatre. Turned out to be speaker issues, but some of the audience thought it was going to collapse.”
And Karen Rogers wrote: “Drama at Garrick!! Call an engineer!! Evacuation!! #drama #red velvet!!”
A disappointed Tim Larkfield wrote: “We've been evacuated from the Garrick Theatre, half an hour into Red Velvet... I was enjoying the show so far though! Bangs and smoke.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Just been chucked out of the Garrick Theatre due to large cracking sounds in the roof...eek! <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://t.co/Xz0vejqIqI" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3165706-https://t.co/Xz0vejqIqI" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/Xz0vejqIqI</a> — sara delaney (@notesbyastylist) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/notesbyastylist/status/692076728827645953" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3165706-https://twitter.com/notesbyastylist/status/692076728827645953" data-vars-event-id="c23">January 26, 2016</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Just been evacuated from the Garrick Theatre. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://t.co/LtNeWJNJ9V" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3165706-https://t.co/LtNeWJNJ9V" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/LtNeWJNJ9V</a> — John Stonborough (@Stonborough) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/Stonborough/status/692077483697520640" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3165706-https://twitter.com/Stonborough/status/692077483697520640" data-vars-event-id="c23">January 26, 2016</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">"I was just thinking about The Curious Incident..." says literally everyone standing around outside — Kerry (@kerrypolka) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/kerrypolka/status/692077941665198081" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3165706-https://twitter.com/kerrypolka/status/692077941665198081" data-vars-event-id="c23">January 26, 2016</a>
Theatre producer Edward Snape said: “It was a technical fault with the sound equipment which one or two members of the audience mistook for fire crackers and that caused more people to come out.”
He added: “Clearly everyone is vigilant and so the show stopped for a little while.”
In December 2013, 88 people were injured when a ceiling collapsed at the Apollo Theatre, which is owned by the same group as the Garrick, during a performance of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
