Austrian Actor's Accidental Suicide On Stage

Daniel Hoevels, 30, accidentally slit his throat on stage last Saturday night when the prop knife for his suicide scene was actually a real one. Hoevels was performing his final scene in Friedrich Schiller’s Mary Stuart at Vienna’s Burgtheater, when he committed the unfortunate act. When blood began pouring from his neck, the audience applauded, thinking it was a very life-like ‘special effect’. The police have questioned the cast and crew to determine whether it was a mistake or an attempted murder. Hoevels survived only because he missed his carotid artery. The knife was reportedly bought at a local shop and one possibility is that the props staff forgot to blunt its blade. After emergency treatment at a hospital, Hoevels declared that ‘the show must go on’, and returned to the stage on Sunday night with a bandage tied around his neck, ready to once again meet his mock demise. So the valuable lesson to be learned here for any actor is: Always check your props.