Hugo Weaving Collapses on Stage
Staff Reporter

Actor Hugo Weaving collapsed on stage last night during a performance by the Sydney Theatre Company involving a strangulation scene.

Weaving, who has starred in hits like The Matrix and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, is playing the male lead in The White Devil.

The Jacobean tragedy, written during the reign of English King James I, is the Sydney Theatre Company's contribution to the Olympic Arts Festival.

A theatre publicist says Weaving's collapse during the scene was the result of illness and exhaustion, and not because of partial strangulation.

The publicist says Weaving is suffering from the flu, and he momentarily blacked out.

Weaving will appear on stage tonight at the play's official opening at the Theatre Royal.