The opening night horror show at a top Auckland school's production is now the subject of a series of investigations.
Two actors ended up in hospital after receiving cuts to their necks during the production of Sweeney Todd last night, and St Kentigern's College is defending its decision to use a real razor blade as a prop.
It's a twisted tale of a murderous barber who kills his clients to be turned into pies.
The teenage boys were injured, one seriously, in scenes where the actor playing the barber pretends to cut their throats.
But audience members didn't realise anything had gone wrong.
"I think the way that the play's done there's a lot of blood anyway," says audience member Claudia Sykes.
"And the way they did it, as soon as it happened they drop down a trap door, so they were off stage straight away.
"No one actually had a chance to notice anything."
Head of college Steve Cole says the cutthroat razor prop had a blunt, but real, blade and was held together with duct tape.
Its use had been approved during health and safety checks ahead of the first performance.
Today detectives were on the school grounds conducting enquiries. WorkSafe is also investigating.
In an email to Newshub one parent said this wasn't the first incident -- one student had been nicked in the neck with a blade during rehearsals.
Mr Cole refuted those claims, but said he would be following up about them.
The two students have now both been discharged from hospital.
Tonight's performance has been cancelled, and the school has yet to decide if the show will return to the stage at all.
Newshub.
