The Way of the World - Donmar

It must be very hard. It happened during The Talking Cure at the NT - James Hazeldine died during prieviews and Dominic Rowan ended up playing two roles

I expect they'll have to make a hard-nosed decision about the tickets sold and the cost of leaving the theatre dark if they didn't continue. But, particularly for a comedy, I can imagine the cast struggling to work with another actor and bring the comedy back. I'm sure they're all professionals and by the end of the run the pain will be imperceptible to the audience. But given they must be mourning their loss, starting new rehearsals with another actor must be the last thing they want to do right now. But I assume the show will go on.

Agree.

The most startling example of the “show must go on” mentality in the old days was when Arthur Lowe was touring with his wife in a play. After the matinee one day he was taken ill and died on the way to hospital, however his wife insisted on going on with the understudy for the evening performance. Indeed the tour continued with her and the understudy and as a result she was unable to attend his funeral too.

Yes Prof that was in the 50s TV days on Armchair Theatre. As it was live TV it was a case of shuffling the poor chaps lines and telling the cast once they were off air. A play called Underground and actor Gareth Jones.

Yeah... It sounds like Dr Brock worked somewhere horrendously inhuman, everywhere I've worked would manage the death of a colleague better than that.

Different times. That was 35 years ago. 

Tonight's performance is also cancelled according to the Donmar website.

This must be extremely difficult for the Donmar. The run had only just started and is due to run until the 26th May. I suppose they will have to re-cast, I don't think they even have understudies. As other posters have said it will be extremely difficult for the cast, especially playing comedy. If this had happened towards the end of the run they probably would just have cancelled the few remaining performances.

BTW, “relatives” in that last post should read “creatives”. Not that his relatives won’t be going through hell, but I don’t think they’ll be at the Donmar.

Waitwell now played by Robin Pearce, not someone I'm particularly familiar with, but he did play the role in the Chichester production in 2012. I'm now very curious as to what extent he remembers the role from all those years ago. It seems like more than long enough ago to forget everything about it, but the fact he's played it before does seem like the kind of thing that makes him a natural person to reach out to in this situation.

The RSC once did a show in Stratford with two female lead parts one of which was played by Harriet Walter. The next year it transferred to London but without her. The day I saw it the other lead was indisposed and they explained before the performance that there was no understudy but Harriet Walter was going to take the part - ie. not the part she had played - but she had only had enough time to rehearse it earlier that day. You couldn’t tell. So she was able to remember someone else’s part with very minimum preparation.