...during the Royal Shakespeare Company's enjoyable production of As You Like It at the Barbican.
There was a technical hitch towards the end, when a large mechanical puppet representing Hymen, the God of Marriage, was supposed to be hoisted up, but its head hit the walkway, fell down and the puppet didn't work. The curtain came down, and the puppet was removed from the stage.
Luckily it was one of Shakespeare's comedies, as the incident added to the silliness on stage. The actor delivering the God of Marriage's lines got one of the biggest laughs, when he said with a bemused shrug:
Peace, ho! I bar confusion.
'Tis I must make conclusion
Of these most strange events.
