ITALIAN AUTHORITIES are trying to unravel the mystery of an actor who was strangled on a theatre stage in Pisa during a hanging scene.
Prosecutors in the Italian city have opened a manslaughter probe following the death of 27-year-old Raphael Schumacher during the live theatre performance.
Two of the theatre’s directors and two technicians have been notified that they are under investigation in the manslaughter probe.
Pisa University Hospital said doctors declared Schumacher dead late yesterday, five days after the incident last Saturday 30 January. He had been in a coma since the incident occurred.
Italian news reports said a recent medical school graduate in the audience sounded the alarm during the performance after noticing the actor was under distress while enacting a hanging.
The daily Il Giornale quoted the directors as saying the piece, about an adolescent’s existential crisis, was supposed to end with a fake pistol shot, but that Schumacher changed it without informing them.
The news agency ANSA reported today that prosecutors are investigating whether a lapse in safety procedure was to blame, with the focus on a possible stage accident rather than suicide.
With AFP
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