London, January 29 (ANI): A stage production of German play ‘Moscow To the End of the Line’ turned chaotic when the actors performing decided to substitute vodka for water “as an experiment.”

Torben Kessler, Michael Abendroth, Marc Oliver Schulze and Oliver Kraushaar were to portray the worker and his fellow passengers, who spend the journey binge-drinking and never arrive at their destination in the play adapted from 1970s novel by the late Russian author Venedikt Erofeev.

However, the show at Frankfurt’s prestigious Schauspielhaus theatre became unruly as actors started falling off chairs and started inviting theatregoers to take swigs out of their bottles, reports the Guardian.

“At first it was quite impressive, they seemed to be giving a good impersonation of tipsiness,” the Telegraph quoted an audience member as telling a German newspaper.

The theatergoer added: “Then they started leaping around shouting ‘nastrovia’ (cheers in Russian) … and then they handed round the drink.” One of the actors could no longer stand up; another, literally, slipped up on his script.

“People started clapping, thinking it belonged to the performance.”

Also, Schulze allegedly became violent in the ambulance, forcing the medics to call for police.

He later had his stomach pumped at Frankfurt’s university clinic.

Oliver Reese, the play’s director, said: “It was seen as a bit of an experiment, sort of along the lines of ‘let’s perform this wonderful text and have a bit of a drink at the same time’ and it went a bit awry.

“One of the actors in particular clearly drank too much vodka, on an empty stomach. That in combination with the adrenalin an actor already feels when he’s on stage caused him to go off the rails. His self-control failed him.”

He added that the actors would avoid alcohol on stage in the future. (ANI)