Following Poor Reviews, British Director Douglas Gordon Takes Pickaxe to Theatre Walls

Following a slew of crushing reviews, Turner Prize-winning director Douglas Gordon took out his frustration on the Manchester's new £25 million HOME theatre - with a pickaxe.

According to The Independent, on Saturday night, Gordon took the axe, a prop in the new play NECK OF THE WOODS, to the walls of the theatre, where "a chunk has been removed from the concrete walls of HOME and the artist is believed to have also scrawled graffiti of a wolf's claw which he then signed and dated."

In her review of the production for The Guardian, critic Lyn Gardner wrote: "All style and no fangs: no wonder I felt like howling."

Per press notes, Gordon, who directs the production, and pianist Helene Grimaud created "Neck of the Woods, a portrait of the wolf brought to life in a startling collision of visual art, music and theatre," based upon the classic story of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD. The production featured Charlotte Rampling reciting the story as the wolf, "weaving together stories, music, motifs, phrases and fragments to build this lyrical and beguiling work."

In a statement, MIF artistic director Alex Poots said: "We understand that one of our artists acted in a wholly inappropriate way on Saturday night, causing slight damage to the fabric of HOME's new building...MIF and the artist have contacted staff who were present and our co-commissioning partners at HOME to apologise...We do not support or condone reckless, inappropriate or intimidating behaviour and will work with our co-commissioning partners and artistic and producing teams to ensure this doesn't happen again."

Click here to check out what BroadwayWorld had to say about the production.

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