The writers of a play based on testimonies from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks say a fire alarm that forced the evacuation of a Northwestern University auditorium was a deliberate and cowardly attempt to intimidate the audience and silence their work. The disruption occurred Tuesday evening during a performance of «OCTOBER 7» at Cahn Auditorium in Evanston, Illinois.
Ann McElhinney, who co-wrote the play with her husband, Phelim McAleer, said many audience members initially remained in their seats when the alarm sounded, believing the sirens were part of the production. The dialogue immediately preceding the alarm had referenced rockets, sirens, and red alerts, she explained, so theatergoers assumed the sound was scripted. «They were like 'Oh, this is part of the play,' until they realized it wasn't,» McElhinney said.
Northwestern Media Relations said in a statement that the alarm was activated at approximately 8:12 p.m., prompting the evacuation of the building. A fire and police investigation determined the building was safe, and guests were invited back inside. The event continued as planned and concluded at 9:45 p.m. The Northwestern University Police Department is continuing its investigation.
McAleer said he believes someone deliberately triggered the alarm after sitting through much of the performance. «This was someone, we believe, someone sat through the play and then came out at the most emotional time,» he said. He described the act as «the sneaky, cowardly, insidious, nasty thing of setting off a fire alarm, causing huge fear and just absolute nervousness among the people who were there and caused this trauma on the anniversary of October 7th.»
McAleer noted that while it was still October 6 in Chicago, it was already October 7 in Israel when the alarm was activated. The timing added to the emotional weight of the evening for those familiar with the anniversary.
After authorities cleared the building, many attendees left, according to McElhinney, who said she believed people were frightened by the incident. Others chose to stay, she said, feeling defiant and refusing to be terrified. McAleer said the performance ultimately ended with a standing ovation, which he viewed as a tribute both to the actors and director and to the audience members who returned. «It's also, I think people were giving themselves a standing ovation that someone had tried to intimidate them, that someone had tried to say to them, 'You're not going to tell the truth,'» he said. «And they didn't succeed.»
The couple said there were no protesters outside the venue at the start of the show. McAleer said people are entitled to protest outside, but he considered what happened inside the theater «more insidious.»
The play is a spoken-word collection of testimonies that McAleer and McElhinney compiled after traveling to Israel shortly after the attacks. McElhinney said the couple was in Ireland when the attacks took place and was stunned to find people criticizing Israel's response the following day while seemingly overlooking the attacks themselves. «We realized that if we didn't go and tell the story and do this work that, you know, it looks very much like nobody else was going to do that,» she said.
McAleer said that shortly after the attacks, «everyone from journalists from the establishment, from university campuses — they all wanted to talk about the war in Gaza, but nobody wanted to talk about October 7th.» He added, «Journalism is supposed to be the first rough draft of history. Nobody was writing that draft.»
The couple, neither of whom had visited Israel before, rented a car and began contacting people willing to share their stories. McElhinney recalled that their hotel in Tel Aviv had a makeshift memorial for an employee killed at the Nova music festival. They ultimately interviewed approximately 20 people, with testimony from 15 included in the play.
In addition to Northwestern, «OCTOBER 7» has been performed in New York City, Princeton, UCLA, Bowdoin College, and the Kennedy Center. The incident at Northwestern was not the first time the production required security. McElhinney said the New York City run had a daily NYPD presence, which she believed made it the only New York play in living memory to require police protection every day. «That tells you something about free speech in New York City,» she said.