I was at cursed Macbeth performance where Tennant got pulled off stage

A theatregoer has revealed how chaos broke out during a performance of Macbeth in the West End this week when a rowdy audience member moaned about paying £250 for a ticket and there not being a toilet break. 

David Tennant was crouching on stage at the Harold Pinter theatre and was just about to perform a soliloquy when a member of staff hurriedly walked on and asked him to leave. 

As the Scottish actor, 53, was informed there was a 'situation', a man standing in the dress circle shouted: 'Yes, there's a situation. I went out to the toilet and wasn't allowed back in.' 

Laura Davies, 42, was at Tuesday night's performance with her boyfriend Luke Peabody after being given tickets for the show as a gift.

She exclusively told MailOnline that the disgruntled ticket holder refused to move before shouting 'Merry Christmas, everyone'. 

'The audience were ridiculously patient and polite at first and there was only sort of low-level mutterings, then a man sitting next to me shouted "Out damned spot" (a line from the Shakespeare play), which went down well with the people around him,' she said. 

The audience began slow-clapping and chanting 'out, out, out' when the disgruntled ticket holder still did not budge and started shoving security. 

Laura said: 'Eventually, after fifteen minutes of him complaining and pushing members of security off him he gave in and shouted down to the audience "two hours without a loo break! I paid £250 to see David Tennant in Macbeth and I was really looking forward to it! Merry Christmas everyone". 

'And then he left and everyone cheered and clapped.'

Laura was quick to heap praise on the cast and staff at the theatre who she described as 'extremely professional'. 

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'The performance just started at exactly the point it had stopped, no reactions or anything,' she said. 

'The interruption did slightly impact on the atmosphere of the show, but only briefly. Everyone was just keen to get back into it really.'

A spokesman for the production said: 'We can confirm there was an incident at the theatre last night, which made it necessary for the front of house team to request a show stop.

'This is standard practice, in order to deal with the situation as swiftly and effectively as possible, enabling the remainder of the production to continue with minimum impact to both the audience and company.'

A message on the theatre's website warns that 'if you need to leave the auditorium during the show, there is no readmittance'.

The former Doctor Who actor stars in the Shakespearean play alongside Cush Jumbo, who plays Lady Macbeth. 

The adaptation is directed by Donmar associate director Max Webster, also known for Life Of Pi and Henry V.

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It has broken box office records at the Harold Pinter theatre, having achieved the highest ever initial on sale of more than £2,150,000 in just one day.  

At the start of November the show was cancelled for three consecutive nights due to 'company illness'.   

Jumbo previously appeared in Hamlet at the Young Vic in 2021, where her performance was described by the former New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley as radiating 'that unquantifiable force of hunger, drive, talent usually called star power'.  

Speaking about his part in Macbeth last year, Tennant told The Guardian: 'I thought I knew this play very well and that it was, unlike any other Shakespeare I can remember rehearsing, straightforward.

'But each time I come to a scene, it goes in a direction I wasn't expecting. It has such muscle to it, it powers along. 

'Plot-wise, it's more front-footed than any Shakespeare play I've done.'

Of her character Lady Macbeth, Jumbo added: 'She is deeply ingrained in our culture. Everyone thinks they know who she is. 

'Most people studied the play at school. I did – I hated it. It was so boring but that's because Shakespeare's plays aren't meant to be read, they're meant to be acted.

'People think they know Lady Macbeth as a type – the strong, controlling woman who pushed him to do it. She does things women shouldn't do. 

'The greatest misconception is that we have stopped seeing Lady Macbeth as a human being.'