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Live theatre is an unpredictable thing.

No matter how much anyone rehearses, something can still go wrong on the night. Most of the time it’s nothing serious, someone simply forgets a line or misses their entrance cue, and the audience might giggle a bit in the wrong place.

On rare occasions though, something so dramatic happens that the show simply cannot continue. From injuries caused by malfunctioning props to flooded stages, theatre history is full of these unexpected moments.

Back in the 19th Century, there were three famous instances when the show simply could not go on.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln

When it comes to dramatic theatre moments, it doesn’t get much more seismic than the assassination of the 16th president of the United States.

The assassin was an American actor called John Wilkes Booth, who had supported the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, against President Lincoln and the Union cause. The war had effectively come to an end on 9 April 1865, when the Confederate general Robert E Lee surrendered to the Union general, Ulysses S Grant.

On 14 April 1865, Booth knew that President Lincoln would be attending a showing of the comedy Our American Cousin, at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. Working with others, Booth planned to not only have Lincoln assassinated, but also Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. Both other men survived the night.

During the theatre performance, President Lincoln was seated in a private box, along with his wife and their two guests. Booth was able to gain access to the outer area of the unguarded box, blocking the door behind him. Under the cover of laughter from the audience, Booth entered through the inner door, killed President Lincoln and injured his guest, Major Henry Rathbone.

Booth then jumped from the box to the stage below, possibly injuring his leg in doing so. It is thought that he yelled something to the crowd, but members of the audience reported hearing different statements. A horse was waiting at a backstage exit for Booth to make his escape.

Lincoln died the following morning on 15 April. Following a large scale manhunt, Booth was found and killed on 26 April 1865.

The Old Price Riots

Ticket price rises are rarely met with much enthusiasm, but in 1809, London theatregoers made their displeasure loudly known.

At the time, there were only two patent theatres in London, Covent Garden and Drury Lane. In September 1808 and February 1809 respectively, both theatres were destroyed in fires.

Covent Garden was the first to reopen in September 1809. Macbeth was chosen as the first show back, with the much-beloved actress Sarah Siddons performing the role of Lady Macbeth, but more on her later. With the Drury Lane still out of action, demand for tickets was high.

Rebuilding the theatre had not come cheap however, and so management were keen to raise certain ticket prices in order to recoup some of the costs. This unpopular idea was made worse by changes to the layout of the theatre. The cheapest seats could be found in the gallery, and the price for these didn’t change. But the area had been reduced in size and anyone sitting there had a very limited view. This angered those who felt that classical drama, such as Shakespeare, should be open to anyone, from any social class.

When the actor and theatre manager John Kemble took to the stage on opening night, the audience expressed their anger, yelling and hissing. Eventually the magistrates had to be called to try and appeal for calm by literally reading the Riot Act from the stage.

This disruption carried on for 67 nights, with the protestors becoming increasingly inventive in their noise-making. Songs were sung, pots and pans banged and banners waved - all preventing the actors on stage from being heard. The rioters gained the name ‘OPs’, an acronym of old price.

Eventually, on 14 December 1809, Covent Garden’s management backed down and the old ticket price was restored.

The Remarkable Sarah Siddons

Sarah Siddons was the most-acclaimed actress of her age, and was particularly revered for her roles in tragedies. It was not unheard of for members of the audience to cry, shriek or faint when she appeared on stage. Such was her renown, famous figures such as the Duke of Wellington or Samuel Johnson would regularly attend soirées at her house.

Sarah is best remembered for playing Lady Macbeth, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It was a role she played numerous times during her career and for which she was praised for adopting a new, more subtle approach. Previously, Lady Macbeth had typically been depicted as an inherently evil person but Sarah is said to have made her a more sympathetic character.

Having seen her performance, the contemporary writer William Hazlitt wrote: “We can conceive of nothing grander. It was something above nature…. she was tragedy personified… She glided on and off the stage like an apparition. To have seen her in that character was an event in every one’s life, not to be forgotten.”

At the age of 57, she chose to retire on 29 June 1812. For her farewell performance, she once again played Lady Macbeth. It was at the aforementioned Covent Garden theatre, with Macbeth played by her brother, John Kemble, who’d had such trouble with the OP rioters.

In the play, Lady Macbeth makes her final appearance in the famous sleepwalking scene, towards the start of the last act. Once Sarah had finished her performance, there was such an outpouring of applause and noise from the audience that the play could not continue.

The stage curtain was closed for a time, before being opened again to reveal Sarah sat alone on the stage, wearing her own clothes. She proceeded to give an eight minute long, emotional farewell speech before finally leaving the stage to further applause. It was quite literally a show-stopping performance.

When she died on 8 June 1831, more than 5,000 people attended her funeral, including the companies of both the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres.