Thursday, December 22, 2005

Edith Webster’s Final Curtain Call

People die everyday, some die in more dramatic ways than others, one of those is the subject of this instalment...

November 10th 1986, 60-year-old veteran stage actress Edith Webster gave her final performance in the off-Broadway play The Drunkard. She had played the same role for the entire eight year run of the show. Her role was that of an elderly grandmother, she received very good reviews for her performance. The script directions called for her to sing the song "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" and then to collapse to the floor.
In her final performance everything had gone very well and just as she finished perhaps her best rendition ever of "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" she collapsed to the floor just as she had countless other times. The audience came to its feet and applauded as the actress lie there motionless. As the raucous applauds continued Edith Webster ACTUALLY DIED! The audience thinking it was all just a part of the play continued to clap, at first even drowning out the cries for a doctor for other performers and production people. It took some time before they realized that the death was not an act but was in fact a real death. The applause stopped and most of those in attendance joined in prayer.

What a truly weird death. Edith was taken to a nearby hospital and was here pronounced dead. Just think about it, this actress collapsed on stage for her scripted death scene and suffered an unscripted fatal heart attack. What a weird world we inhabit.

I’m Average Joe

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