Sometimes life changes in a moment. For actor Conor Madden, that moment was in Act 5, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's play Hamlet, during a fight scene between the characters of Hamlet and his rival Laertes.

In 2011, Conor was 24, and had been signed with the same agency that actors like Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell were signed to. He showed huge promise and seemed to be on the cusp of great things.

That Autumn, he was cast in the part of Hamlet in a run that would tour theatres around the country. Cast alongside Conor was Dublin actor Aonghus Óg MacAnally, who played the role of Laertes.

Hamlet was the Leaving Cert play that year and the audience around the country were Leaving Cert students. One of those students was filmmaker Michael-David McKernan. Now Michael-David re-visits the events of that fateful performance.

The play started its run in The Helix in Dublin, before moving to Cork and Galway, and then returning to The Helix again. By the time Michael-David saw it being performed, Conor was no longer playing the part of Hamlet.

That was because Conor was in hospital, as a result of a life-changing accident that happened on-stage in Cork. It was during a fight scene between Hamlet and Laertes in the final scene of the play.In the scene, the two characters fight with heavy swords. The swords are blunted but they are heavy and - as Conor says - "you don't want to get hit by them".

Aonghus and Conor had worked on the fight scene and rehearsed it many times, but this day, they were in a new theatre. And this theatre’s stage was smaller than the one they had been performing on up until now.

Usually when there is a fight scene, a 'fight call’ happens before the performance. A fight call is a rehearsal of the fight and it is especially important when a play moves to a new theatre and a different stage. But this day, the fight call before the performance didn’t happen. What happened during that fight scene would be catastrophic for Conor.

Now, Michael-David meets Conor to find out what happened, and how Conor’s life has unfolded since.

Produced by Michael-David McKernan and Nicoline Greer

First broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1, 2PM, Saturday 16th September 2023

An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries