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UNCLE VANYA SHOOTS BROTHER-IN-LAW At the end of Act 3 of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, the distraught Vanya, wielding a revolver, pursues his parasitical brother-in-law, Professor Serebryakov; they exit off-stage and shots are heard, before the Professor re-enters in terror, followed by Vanya who fires once more. He misses, and the curtain falls. On the opening night of Canberra Rep's 1971 production, I fired the shot and, as I uttered the closing line : 'Missed! Missed … again!' I watched in amazement as the Professor, excellently played by Stan Davies, subsided to the floor, clutching his forehead as blood dribbled down his face and the curtain drew a dignified veil over the scene. 'Come on Stan – aren't you overdoing it a bit?' I chided him, then realised that the rest of the cast, the SM and prompt were running to his aid. He was rushed to hospital and Alan Harvey, then Rep's professional Director, read-in for Stan in the final act. News had come through that Stan was in no danger, so the show had to go on! After the final curtain, the Company was visited by several members of Canberra's Finest, examining the set, the weapon and its ammunition, counting the numerous holes which the set backstage had sustained during rehearsals. The Professor had stood downstage of Vanya when the final shot was fired, with the result that a couple of seats in the auditorium had also sustained wounds. In true Agatha Christie style, the 'Tecs gathered the company together on stage and asked, diffidently 'Was there any ill-feeling between members of the Company?' It transpired that Rep's member-armourer disliked the wimpish sound of normal stage revolvers and had supplied us with Ramset cartridges normally used on construction sites. These 'blank' shells were sealed with a solid plastic plug, about the size of an Aspro. I had imagined this plug to be wax which disintegrated on firing but, in the dressing room on the second night, the heavily-bandaged Stan told me that he had often heard the plastic missiles buzz past him during rehearsals. On the previous night, Vanya had been a little less inaccurate and the plastic plug had lodged under Stan's skin, just above his right eyebrow. We had a full house on the opening night and, had Stan not copped it, Rep could well have lost a loyal patron. The Police obligingly took the offending weapon and near-lethal shells into their care (for finger-printing, no doubt) and offered the use of an approved replica revolver which, for the rest of the season, emitted a pathetic sound no more convincing than a distant starter's pistol. This incident was reported in the Canberra Times the next day, resulting in one of Rep's most successful seasons there-after. Even The Worst Australian carried a filler-piece on the front page when it discovered that the shooter was an expat Sandgroper. My Mother never missed an opportunity to get the family's name in the press! PHIL MACKENZIE FLIPMAC