City blackout ends theatre show

Hundreds of young theatre-goers were left disappointed tonight after a power-cut forced performers to abandon a Shakespeare production.Norwich Theatre Royal was almost full to its 1,300 capacity for a special children's production of The Tempest when electricity failed in Norwich city centre about fifteen minutes into the 7.

Hundreds of young theatre-goers were left disappointed tonight after a power-cut forced performers to abandon a Shakespeare production.

Norwich Theatre Royal was almost full to its 1,300 capacity for a special children's production of The Tempest when electricity failed in Norwich city centre about fifteen minutes into the 7.30pm performance.

Although emergency lighting came on in the auditorium all power to the stage was lost. Ushers had to escort the groups out of the theatre. Schools from all over the county had attended and many had to wait for coaches to return home.

Street lights on Theatre Street also failed and power was also lost to nearby offices - most of which were empty at the time. Other parts of the city centre were also affected.

Front of house usher Marian Jones said: “It's such a shame for the children but we had no choice. It was not possible to carry one without electricity.”

Rebecca Hopkinson, spokesman for EDF energy, said: “About 350 customers in Norwich experienced an interruption to their power supply at 7.46pm following a fault on the underground electricity network.

“EDF Energy Networks engineers restored power to all but 39 customers within two minutes and we would like to reassure customers that we worked to restore the remaining supplies as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this is causing.”