After critics axed Douglas Gordon‘s play, “Neck of the woods,” the 1996 Turner-Prize winning artist took an axe, literally, to the newly-opened theater complex in Manchester where the play was staged, taking out a chunk of wall. He then drew what appears to be a claw around the damaged part—and signed it.

The theater complex, HOME, opened its doors on May 21, following a £25 million ($40 million) construction project. Now, Gordon has been slapped with a repair bill.

The play—which premiered last weekend as part of the Manchester International Festival (MIF)—is conceived as a re-telling Little Red Riding Hood, and designed to be as frightening to adults as the original story is to children. Little Red Riding Hood is saved from the belly of a wolf by a woodcutter, so the show features several axes. The axe used for the attack is believed to be a stage prop.

Douglas Gordon’s handiwork on the wall of Manchester’s HOME theater. 
Photo: via Manchster Evening News.

Douglas Gordon’s handiwork on the wall of Manchester’s HOME theater. 
Photo: via Manchster Evening News.

Gordon created the play in collaboration with actor Charlotte Rampling, writer Veronica Gonzalez Peña, and fellow artist Hélène Grimaud, with whom he collaborated on his most recent outing at the Park Avenue Armory, tears become…streams become…

“For me, the most important thing is to be as close to the dark as possible,” Gordon said prior to the festival’s opening, “and then, when the lights come up, it should be the same as when you’re a child, when you have a nightmare and then you wake up and you feel safe and then you’re frightened to go back to sleep.”

But the critics weren’t impressed. The Daily Telegraph said the play had “the unmistakable whiff of a vanity project,” and added that “Rampling looks terribly uncomfortable most of the time.”

Meanwhile, the Guardian described it as a “humourless and sedate Red Riding Hood retelling” that “takes itself very seriously” and is “so old-fashioned you wonder if Gordon has any familiarity at all with contemporary theater.”

Charlotte Rampling in “Neck of the Woods” at Manchester international festival.
Photo: Courtesy of Ninon Liotet via The Guardian.

“We understand that one of our artists acted in a wholly inappropriate way on Saturday night,” MIF artistic director Alex Poots told the press, “causing slight damage to the fabric of Home’s new building.”

“This is totally unacceptable,” he added, “and the artist involved will be paying for repairs…. MIF and the artist have contacted staff who were present and our co-commissioning partners at Home to apologize.”

While the festival supports artists who make ambitious shows, he said, “We do not support or condone reckless, inappropriate or intimidating behaviour and will work with our co-commissioning partners and artistic and producing teams to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Hopefully, after paying the bill and apologizing for his behavior, Gordon and the theater can bury the hatchet.