Sir Peter Hall has apologised to Downton Abbey star Laura Carmichael for disrupting her West End stage debut.
The theatre director was heard to cry “Stop” during a closing speech by Carmichael, 26, who was playing Sonya in Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.
The first-night interruption prompted anger among audience members and later on Twitter. Many people did not realise that it was the former head of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.
Sir Peter, who is still working and is a regular theatre-goer despite turning 82 this month, said that he never meant to cause a disturbance and wanted quell suggestions that he was heckling Carmichael.
“I am mortified that I unintentionally disrupted the final scene of Uncle Vanya and I have sent a personal note to Laura Carmichael offering my apologies,” he told the Standard.
“I enjoyed the evening, and her performance, immensely, and I cannot stress too strongly that my remarks were in no way directed at her or the production.” He blamed old age for him briefly falling asleep, leaving him confused when his wife Nikki woke him.
“Being rather aged, I dropped off for a moment and on being woken by my wife I was briefly disorientated. Remarks made in the resulting confusion were not in any way related to Uncle Vanya, which I think is a very fine production with a marvellous company of actors.”
Sources close to the director insisted that he would never have been so rude to heckle or even talk during a performance. He was also heard making admiring comments about the play as he was leaving the Vaudeville Theatre.
One member of the audience said: “It was quite disruptive but my main thought is that he’s old and has been a great servant of the theatre. People should cut him some slack.”
The production, which also stars Ken Stott, Anna Friel and Samuel West, received decent, but not rave, reviews.
