A play in England is making headlines for making people faint.
As The New Yorker reports, performances of The Years at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London have had to pause on numerous occasions while ushers attend to audience members who’ve lost consciousness in the middle of the show.
This most often occurs during a scene in which the play’s protagonist describes getting an illegal abortion, and rumor has it that it’s mostly men who are fainting.
“I couldn’t fathom that a play or a scene would do that to me,” says one fainting male theatergoer. “It was very Victorian. A real get-the-salts scenario.”
The publicity of the faintings has led some to cry conspiracy, with some going online to question whether they’re actually audience plants. Director Eline Arbo denies this claim.
“I wouldn’t do that to the actors. I wouldn’t do that to the audience,” Arbo says. “I wouldn’t do that to anybody. No.”