Pop! Gloucester is pierced through her eyes, which blinds her permanently, sending blood gushing and spurting everywhere.

The high school’s Shakespeare play Lear, directed by drama teacher Mary Mastandrea, left the audience satisfied with its theatrical stunt in which the character Gloucester, played by senior Maeve Forti, had her eyes gouged out by Cornwall, played by junior Sarah Dreyfus.  Lighting, sound, special effects and facepaint all contributed to the magic.

Junior Haley Barnes made the blood bags which made the stunt possible.

Sophomore Eve Crawford, who played Cordelia, said the actors popped little plastic blood bags with a high heeled shoe over Forti’s face.

“There was blood on her eyes, so it looked like her eyes were gouged out,” Crawford said.

Senior Liam O’Brien, who played the Duke of Albany, said that the blood bags were made from corn syrup and food coloring.

“Barnes made sure we got the right color for the blood and she made all the blood bags. It was a challenge to make sure we got the right color for the blood,” O’Brien said.

According to Barnes, the effect the blood had on the clothing was key to the stunt’s success.

“We had to use special effects makeup, the blood of course, but also the dye for the cloth around her head was very important,” Barnes said.

Sophomore Nathan Comerchero, who attended the play, said that he was stunned and didn’t know how the blinding was accomplished.

“I thought it was very well executed because one second she was fine and the next she was lathered in blood, this whole thing being onstage,” Comerchero said. “This girl walked in front of her to cover what was going on. I feel like it would be extremely hard to paint something realistic that fast.”

According to O’Brien, the key to theatrical stunts’ success is manipulating what the audience sees.

“I think the key thing to all these stage stunts and fighting is the idea that you need to obscure the audience’s view just enough to make it believable,” O’Brien said. “It’s not really just the lighting and the sound, it’s a lot of manipulating the audience’s view about what they’re seeing.”