I was beaten up by backstage workers of the 'Cats' performance in Seoul, Korea which resulted in 6 hours in hospital and significant medical costs including a brain scan.
Nobody wishes to take responsibility for this and they are hoping I'm just going to let it drop.
For further details, contact 'The Really Useful Group'
I do not mean to belittle this, but you need to give the Forum more info on this...
"I was beaten up by backstage workers of the 'Cats' performance in Seoul, Korea which resulted in 6 hours in hospital and significant medical costs including a brain scan."
"Nobody wishes to take responsibility for this and they are hoping I'm just going to let it drop."
"For further details, contact 'The Really Useful Group'"
Backstage - You have not mentioned why you were backstage, or who you were with. Backstage crew members do not "usually" attack people without reason. In both cases I was backstage, I was WITH a member of the CREW - In the States, I was with the Company Manager; and in Edinburgh, I was with the Chief Electrician. Backstage is dangerous for the non-theatre person, and security will definitely tell you to leave, and will escort you, sometimes forcefully, out of the backstage area - IF you are back there unauthorized! There is insurance to think of, as well as too many expensive and irreplaceable objects back there...
Employees - Backstage have three sets of employees, depending upon the country and/or the production: The TOUR (CATS) Crew, the Local Theatre Union crew, and the Theatre or House Crew. I am not sure of the composition of the Korean Tour, but I did read that they majority are Korean, and the other portion is part of the Brisbane Tent Crew.
See RUG - I checked "News" and no mention is made of this. If you wish members of the Forum to check this out, we need the URL to the report.
Again, I am not trying to make light of this, but I certainly need more information. There are two sides to any incident, so we need to have yours as well as RUG to make any call on it. If you were injured, no matter what the reason, I hope you recover well.
Thank you for your response regarding this incident. I apologies for not providing more information and for taking this unorthodox approach. I have just been extremely frustrated by the lack of response I have had from people further up the chain.
The incident actually took place in a bar in Seoul. The people involved were a group of Australian 'riggers' and electricians. Alcohol was involved on both sides, which obviously did not help the situation. The result was a verbal exchange, which led to me being repeatedly punched around the head until I was on the floor, where the attack continued while bystanders shouted for 'him' to stop, as I was virtually unconscious. In my disorientated state, I foolishly got up and followed ¡®him¡¯ out of the bar to be met once more by 'him' and some of his colleagues. A further beating was inflicted. I must stress that at no point did I hit anyone. Photographic evidence clearly shows the extent of damage to my face.
No one at 'The Really Useful Company' wishes to comment on this matter and that is why I would like you to contact them yourselves.
The group of people representing 'Cats' that evening gained a reputation locally for being less than friendly to a number of the bar patrons.
I do not believe that an incident like this should tarnish the good name of 'Cats' or any organization associated with it. However, I also do not feel that this should go unnoticed and that the people involved should be allowed to get off with no reprimand whatsoever which may in turn result in further, similar incidences.
I am also aware that the main individual involved in this incident has a relative working higher up in the organization who presumably does not wish this incident to be made public. Thank you for making me aware of 'RUG'. I did not know about them and I will certainly be contacting them.
Thank you once again for your reply; it¡¯s nice to know someone is listening.
Excuse me, but why do you feel that the RUG should get involved in this incident? By your own statement it didn't occur while these people were at work. Should employers keep an investigative arm to check out complaints about their employees when they are off duty? Isn't that the job of the police? Have you gone to the police? Have you filed charges against these people?
There are many people here who are willing to help people in trouble. But you have to understand that many people make false claims on the net, which makes us careful about who we believe. I believe Rumblepurr was asking for a link to a story about this incident in a news source such as a newspaper or CNN. I would hope that everyone here would want such verification before getting involved in this incident.
I have to agree here with Talis on all points regarding employers and they're monitoring of employees. i'm also going to attempt to expand on it a little bit...so someone please correct me if something in what I say is incorrect. If I recall correctly, employers are not responsible for their employees behavior when it does not involve company business or off of company property, at least here in America. Now, an employer may choose to fire an employee due to behavior "off-site", but that does not make the employer responsible for the employee's behavior which resulted in the firing. With regards to no news story on the RUG site, or involving RUG...my understanding is that a given company "leases" from RUG the right to produce and perform a presentation of any of RUG's musicals, meaning that RUG is not directly responsible for the actions of the employees of that company, or any company they subcontract with to help run the show or security. Now, if something happens that involves the production directly, they may post a news story. Otherwise, RUG does not need to post a story...whether the publicity is bad or good. It seems to me that RUG has little to do with this, and the company or companies that you should concern yourself with are the company staging the show, the theatre it is staged at, or the local union involved with the theatre...most likely one of the latter two. There's more I want to say with regards to this, but it does not wish to become concious thought at this time.
I would have to add that often, the "riggers" work for the theatre, or are part of a local union or some such thing, and not necessarily for the production company itself. If that's the case, the RUG really can't do anything anyhow. My advice would be to find out the names of the guys who hurt you, and if you didn't provoke them as you seemed to indicate in your statement above, you could sue them for the medical fees, etc.... I'm not sure how the justice system actually works in Korea, so you might know better than I do. Were the local police involved? Did you file a report with them? That could help your case.
I'm sorry to hear that you had gone through all that trouble.
Q: ¡°Excuse me, but why do you feel that the RUG should get involved in this incident? By your own statement it didn't occur while these people were at work. Should employers keep an investigative arm to check out complaints about their employees when they are off duty?
As I said earlier- they are representatives of ¡®Cats¡¯ whatever way you look at it.
Isn't that the job of the police? Have you gone to the police? Have you filed charges against these people?
Yes, of course I filed a complaint with the police here in Korea and the party involved in the incident was identified as the guilty party. Due to communication problems here in Korea, he avoided further legal action, as I was not informed that the case had been closed without me being given the option to pursue it further.
There are many people here who are willing to help people in trouble. But you have to understand that many people make false claims on the net, which makes us careful about who we believe.
As I said in my first posting, if you would like confirmation of this incident, feel free to send a quick email to RUG. If there is any truth in it they will either respond or give their version of events. It's entirely up to you whether you pursue it or not.
I had not intended to start a long thread and perhaps I should have thought twice about it. My concern is for the public and the reputation of Cats.
I believe Rumblepurr was asking for a link to a story about this incident in a news source such as a newspaper or CNN. I would hope that everyone here would want such verification before getting involved in this incident.
If you have time to write lengthy responses to me, you have time to send a quick email to RUG - Please forget the whole thing- that's what everyone appears to feel best. Perhaps you too are afraid that the reputation of Cats is at risk? I have little to gain by discussing this further as you clearly either don't believe me or are afraid that some truth which reflects Cats in a bad light will emerge.
I apologise for starting this thread on your site and I will not continue it. Thank you once again for taking the time to reply.
I wish you all well.
Quote: "Perhaps you too are afraid that the reputation of Cats is at risk? I have little to gain by discussing this further as you clearly either don't believe me or are afraid that some truth which reflects Cats in a bad light will emerge."
Do you know how many CATS versions are playing at the moment around the world? Many.
Secondly, if the theatre member really beaten you up than the reputation of the theatre itself or the firm who owned the theatre or production will go bad - not the show itself.
Thirdly CATS is running for a very long time in many countries and I have never heard in the newspaper that audience members have been regularly beaten up by theatre people.
I heard once that there was trouble in one of the German theatre where CATS was playing at the moment: One time there was a small gas attack in the second floor of the audience by an audience member itself in CATS Berlin. Fortunately nobody got hurt.
Time isn't the issue. Neither is the reputation of CATS. What I think is since you can't gain retribution on the individual who hurt you, you are now looking for someone else to blame. And if you can get enough CATS fans to appear to support you, you think you might get some compensation from RUG. Considering the circumstances you've sited, that's not a cause I want to get behind.
