In a fan-captured video, the actor can be seen asking the audience members to keep calm while staying in character.
- Jun 18, 2018
AceShowbiz - Tom Hanks improvised onstage for 20 minutes after an audience member collapsed.
The Oscar-winning actor is playing Sir John Falstaff in a production of William Shakespeare's Henry IV at the Japanese Garden on the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration campus, and he sprang into action during the medical emergency earlier this week, beg June 11.
The show came to a halt after the theatregoer passed out, according to the Orange County Register.
And when the crowd became restless while waiting for the play to resume, Hanks took it upon himself to entertain the audience while the show's crew, who are made up of military veterans with medical training, and later the paramedics, were treating the audience member.
In a video shared by the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, who put on the production, the 61-year-old can be seen staying in character during the incident, and even brought a woman up onstage to join him during his ad-libbing.
"No intermission brew for you!" Hanks bellowed, while also calling out "scurvy rogues" at those who attempted to leave their seats.
"An insult to all actors and to Shakespeare himself," he said while in costume as the fat knight Falstaff.
He also jokingly warned the still seated audience members: "Get back here or find this sword and many a dagger placed neatly in the tires of your carriage".
Hanks then called out to one woman in the audience, urging her to "give me back my costume".
The unnamed audience member regained consciousness and was later released from the hospital.
Heath Harper, Hanks' theatrical dialect coach, told Variety he started filming as soon as Hanks began his impressive improv.
"I've never seen anything like it," he said. "It credits the work we've done and Tom's commitment to the character that he was able to just jump on the stage and improv as Falstaff like that. The audience absolutely ate it up and loved every minute".
