Laurence Fox blasts heckler during The Patriotic Traitor performance: 'This **** has ruined it for everybody'

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Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

The last person you want sit next when at the theatre is an obnoxious heckler. Unfortunately, for those watching The Patriotic Traitor at London’s Park, one such person managed to not only wind up the audience but also the actors.

Towards the end of the play, Laurence Fox - best known for playing James Hathaway in BBC crime drama Lewis - began shouted down a heckler just before leaving the stage.

“I won’t bother telling you the story because this c**t in the front row has ruined it for everybody,” he said according to The Guardian. He did not return to bow at the end of the performance.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today program, the actor began by apologising for the outburst: "Can I just start by apologising to the other 199 people in the theatre for my use of language.

"It was a very emotional part of the play and I was very upset about it and am upset about how I behaved.”

He explained that the crowd member had "started muttering and heckling" early on in the performance: "It became so loud and impossible to deal with.”

However, Fox stated he would have liked to have dealt with things differently: "I really should have had a little speech prepared and gone: 'Excuse me sir, you can either leave, or whatever'. But instead, in the heightened emotion of the thing, I told him to er…

"The dynamic of the theatre and the storytelling process to me seems that there is a fourth wall through which the audience watch... therefore if someone is hell-bent on heckling they are ruining it for everybody... it becomes an unperformable play.”

The Patriotic Traitor focuses on the relationship between Fox’s Charlse de Gaulle - the French president during the second World War - and politician Philippe Petain, played by Tom Conti.