Dundee Rep Theatre had to cancel their second Oor Wullie production in just four days last night due to an actor falling “seriously ill” midway through the show.
The production team have also cancelled tonight’s and tomorrow’s shows due to the illness.
Fans were left disappointed after the Boxing Day production was cancelled when a gastric problem forced directors to cancel the show before it went ahead.
This gave them the opportunity to contact Oor Wullie fans with tickets in advance and let them know about the issue.
But at last night’s performance, the show was cut short and illness once again forced the team into cancelling the performance – midway through the first half of the production.
Around 40 minutes into the show, members of the audience reported that theatre staff came on stage to say the show had been stopped due to “serious illness.”
Just before the announcement, a theatre employee was seen walking onto the stage to let the cast know, before they stopped and returned to backstage.
As a precaution, the theatre are now cancelling Monday and Tuesday’s performances.
A spokesperson for the theatre said: “We had to halt the performance as a cast member became ill.
“In order to avoid cancelling suddenly, we’ve cancelled the next two days’ performances.
“It is the same member of the cast and the same gastric problem again. It is important to make sure they feel better and in the meantime we are apologising to audiences.
“It’s very disappointing. Everyone with tickets will be able to get a refund or reschedule.”
Show director Andrew Panton had said that the team were “fighting fit and ready to go” on Friday.
Speaking earlier in the week, he said: “We had to cancel because of illness sadly to a cast member, but the good news is that we are fighting fit and ready to go.
“The cast member had a gastric problem and thankfully they are feeling a lot better which is great.
“We don’t want to say who it was because it puts pressure on the person who was ill and because there is a lot of emotion at being the person whose illness caused the call-offs. It is disappointing for everyone.
“We have a structure that works well and there are some parts we have managed to cover with sore throats. But there are certain parts that we are not able to cover and we would not want to put on a show that was not top standard.”
The Oor Wullie Christmas 2019 production has run at Dundee Rep from November 23 and is still scheduled to continue until Sunday.
