peternewman Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Moderation: The mods thought this deserved wider coverage, so we've put it here as a new topic From The Times:Theatre in tears BERLIN: A theatre mistakenly released tear gas instead of stage fog. About 100 people were forced to flee from Volksbühne theatre during a production of the children’s classic Emile and the Detectives, with several needing eye treatment. (AFP) Now that's what I'd call a technical disaster! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamplighter Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 I wonder what tear gas is doing in a theatre!Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slipstream Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Not a dry eye in the house.......... Does kinda make you wonder where it came from - sounds more like just cleaning fluid rather than fog juice, tear gas tends to be a combustion product not a gas to begin with. Ammonia based cleaner in 5l containers? sounds possible? Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Having yesterday sniffed to contents of a spray bottle to check to see if it was Flambar, I wonder... Very Ammonia-ish... It was next to the fog fluid to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Also included in todays Daily Telegraph (a 1 inch square on page 15) Sorry I can't find it on the website and don't have the patience to type it up but it blames it on a mix up at the factory supplying the gas. Which to me sounds like a very worrying excuse. (sorry about the spelling but the computer has crashed twice in typing this and I dont fancy trying to install anything till I have redone it properly.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 A bit of Google news searching brought this up - a twist and probably more worrying stillAccording to the theatre's website, the tear gas was released during a scene in which there is a confrontation between two characters (played by actors Milan Peschel and Georg Friedrich). Shots fired from a pistol were reportedly teargas cartridges instead of blanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 I'm sorry, but I don't buy any of this. Berlin is hardly in a country where stagecraft is not very well developed. The German stage crews know what the hell they're doing. Teargas Cartridges are not easily confused with (blank) ammunition:http://bryson.albassamtheatre.com//tear%20gas.jpg They don't even fit in the same weapon. There's just no way that you could do that by mistake. CS Gas doesn't get made in the same kind of factories as smoke fluid. It just doesn't - they are entirely unrelated. There is something hugely fishy going on here. Either it wasn't really teargas, or it was done on purpose. All the "reasons" given sound like people trying to bulls**t us - but with the inside knowledge that we have, it's clear that the accidents could not have occurred as stated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karl Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Visiting the website of the theatre in question (http://volksbuehne-berlin.de) and running the press release through babelfish suggests that as yet the exact nature and cause of the problem is not known. There appears to be a mention of a possible cartridge mix up but also it is suggested that it could have been a bad "joke" by a member of the public. Maybe if somebody who can translate German properly checks out the site they can give a clearer interpretation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roderick Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 Here's a link to a German article: Der Spiegel, not the most reliable source (Spiegel in German means 'Mirror' and the paper would be on par with the English publication of that name) but it does give a few details.For those who don't read German, it basically says that the about 80 people left the auditorium complaining about eye and breathing problems. The police has confiscated the gun and the cartridges for examination. There is a suggestion that it could have been a prank gone wrong from one of the audience members. Apparantly the play raised a few eyebrows when in opened in early December. More of the same can be found here: Linky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPlater1 Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 Basically there was an incident during a performance of Emil and the Detectives where 80 members of the audience exited the auditorium with irritated eyes and skin. 30 members stayed to try and get refunds of their tickets while the rest got out quickly. The performance was not halted, as most of the audience and actors did not have noticeable symptoms. On the stage there was a confrontation between two characters, with a gunshot being used from a pistol. It is not clear at the moment whether there was a mix up in cartridges, or if it was a joke by a member of the audience. The gun and cartridges are being kept safe by the police to be examined. They hope for a quick clear up of what happened, or there will be no rest for Emil and his detectives either. Sorry if I made mistakes, but translating at midnight after two whisky and cokes isn't the easiest thing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scjb Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 Bryson, be aware that tear gas cartridges are available in a variety of sizes. Obviously the smaller the carrier then the less the effect, but the 37mm (presumably) cartridge you indicated is by no means the smallest... EDIT: Just wanted to make sure it was understood I was making no comment on the possible relevance to the story in the OP, just, you know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 I knew that - the point was that tear gas cartridges and regular bullets are not interchangable items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.