Actor John Boyega of "Star Wars" fame is currently appearing in the lead role in the play “Woyzeck” at the Old Vic theater in London. This evening, Boyega and hundreds of audience members, actors and theater staff had to evacuate the theater after a security alert was received.

Old Vic theater evacuated over security threat

As reported by the Hollywood Reporter, everyone in the Waterloo venue was evacuated, as were people in nearby restaurant and pubs after a security alert went out. Theater goers headed to social media to say the audience and members of the cast of the play had been evacuated to the gardens of the Imperial War Museum close by.

The Old Vic theater had sent out a tweet, saying the theater had been evacuated merely as a precaution, as the safety of the audience is their priority. They added that the theater was liaising with police at the time. Reportedly London police say the incident is now over.

Evening performance at the theater will go on as planned

The theater went on to send a further tweet asking patrons to contact their point of sale to re-book their seats and sent a further message saying that, following the advice of the Metropolitan Police, the evening’s performance would go ahead as planned.

In responses to the tweet by the theater, many of the theater patrons thanked them for handling the situation so professionally, saying their staff were calm and communicated well during the evacuation.

Other Twitter users responded humorously to the incident.

According to a spokeswoman for the London Metropolitan Police, they had received a call at around 14:30 local time to report there was a bomb threat at the Old Vic theater.

The decision was immediately made to evacuate everyone from the theater and surrounding buildings. Police said around two hours later that the incident was not of a suspicious nature.

John Boyega playing the leading role in ‘Woyzeck’

As reported by the BBC, Boyega is currently playing the role of a British soldier in Berlin in the height of the Cold War of the 1980s. Theatre critics have reportedly widely praised his performance in the play. However, the actor is probably best known for playing the role of Finn in the 7th film of the “Star Wars” franchise, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

While immediately following the terror attack at the Manchester Arena on Monday the U.K. threat level had been increased to “critical,” it has now five days later been reduced to “severe.” However, strong security measures are still in force at various events held across Britain.
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