Sweeny Todd

[paulears]

The problem as I see it from time to time is that teachers are very narrow in their general knowledge, and few really understand safety. There's always someone who has been on a course in charge of safety, so they are the ones who band easily managed and trivial risks, yet leave the PE department to do what any sensible, but perhaps ill informed person would assume are dangerous activities. That same person can't stand on a step to reach a high shelf. My recent experience of black tabs racing around the circular track, with four kids being towed along, suggests drama teachers might need a little assistance in what is dangerous.

 

I remember well trying to do some work that needed Stanley knives. All I remember of the session is constantly having to keep saying put them down! Over and over again until it changed to where did the blood come from. The notion of kids, blades and having them near a throat, being used to simulate a throat slash just makes me think that whoever was in charge was foolish at the lowest degree and will be no doubt made the scapegoat. As for the Principal knowing what goes on in the classes, that's just not how it works. Principals have no idea what goes on. It's not their job to I to classes any more, and they have multi layers of senior people to do that, none of them will see tiny details. Thanks goodness the injuries were mild. I suspect, reading the press reports that were talking superficial injuries as the details were so sketchy.

[kerry davies]

Just a cursory glance suggests that the new Act was well overdue and has already had an astounding effect in New Zealand. It seems to be very heavily based on HSE policies and the UK way of doing things in that it is proactive and risk management based. The penalties and duties on companies, organisations, directors, managers and workers have been detailed very much like those of the UK have been. They are not the point, RA based management is.

 

For years the fatalities at work figure in New Zealand was amazingly stable at around 50 a year. Just introducing the Act has cut those by two thirds and this year has seen only 17 deaths. This might be a blip but it looks very much like the passage of the Act has focused minds. Worksafe appear to have used the HSE websites as templates, to some extent, and poured information out to industry. They have always been good in theatre and our wider industry but this looks like a step change which could save 30 lives or more a year.

 

Rather than hide assets from possible penalties surely the common sense thing would be to comply with best practice? The original report of an eyewit saying that "the show must go on" while two students were overnighting in hospital suggests that a culture change is much needed. If this case speeds that up then it might end as a blessing in disguise. Last words should go to Worksafe;

In comparison with other similar countries, our workplace health and safety record is woeful...Something has to change.

[Jivemaster]

The modern problem is that children do not get exposed to risk and hazard at home and don't actually discover that knives are sharp til it happens in regulated industry. Now they make "raised tables" in the road outside schools so that kids don't get confused when trying to negotiate kerbs.

[pumphouse]

The thing I find astonishing about this story (apart from the underlying stupidity of what they did) was the fact there were TWO injuries of the same type on the same performance.

 

This smacks rather of 'the show must go on' mentality, as I would have expected after the first injury someone may have spotted there was a problem and stopped the show, to prevent any further injuries.

 

Someone coming off stage covered in real blood would surely have been a bit of a giveaway......

 

Jason.

[cedd]

They possibly wouldn't have had time to notice and call the stop. In the number "Joanna" Sweeney cuts a number of throats in quite quick succession. Depending on what was going on back stage the issue may not have made it to the stage manager in time to stop the second instance (and there are more than 2 cuts, so one could guess that the show was maybe stopped after the second). If somebody came off stage covered in blood (their own and fake) it could take a moment or two to realise that something was untoward. Then the first reaction would no doubt be to deal with the first aid situation in front of you. In the heat of the moment and with some adrenaline flowing it could take a while to join the dots and stop the show.

I'm not saying it's right or excusable, just that I can imagine it happening. In our production of Sweeney we had fake blades, controlled by an armourer and checked by armourer and Sweeney as they were handed over. We had spotters in the wings with pre-agreed "ok" signs from the cast (more for the trap door and slide in fairness) before the trap was opened. If anything had gone wrong with the throat cut we wouldn't have got the ok sign and would instantly have known something was up and called a stop. All of this was in spite of the fact we were using blades that were designed from their manufacture to be safe.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jevans]

As I recall when we did Sweeney we had hired blades designed for the show with an integrated "blood" reservoir in the handle that left a trail of fake blood across the throat, so very possible. We didn't do the tipping chair, which made staging the successive deaths a bit easier.

[ekul1978]

As someone who has just finished a run of Sweeney Todd at our school I find this nuts. We used the fake razors with the blood in the handle to great effect, so why anyone would use real ones blunted down and covered with tape I will never know.

[GridGirl]

There's been a report by WorkSafe about this case - the more I read about it the more I wonder who the idiot who allowed this to go ahead was. Anyone with half a brain could have seen it was an accident waiting to happen:

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/92380014/worksafe-report-found-two-students-injured-in-rehearsals-before-opening-night-of-sweeney-todd

[paulears]

So they really caused potentially lethal injuries and they've whitewashed the whole thing by initiating a review and new processes. Here, the teachers would have been immediately suspended, and by now teachers and the school/college management would have been in court. They got off very lightly!

[kerry davies]

I think you are misreading it Paul. It is, I believe, very much like our police caution where they have pleaded guilty, been given a substantial but smaller fine, agreed to rigid new H&S measures and could be sentenced by a judge for this offence if they ever appear in court on similar charges in future. See my italics.

WorkSafe said the school had "entered into an enforceable undertaking agreement" in April.

Agreeing to the undertaking meant Saint Kentigern College avoided prosecution over the incident, despite WorkSafe's official recommendation - costing the school $85,000.

[Tomo]

I also presume that there was also a civil action for compensation, which will have been settled out of court and so not become public knowledge.