Where: Lyceum Theatre, West End

Who: The Stage Manager

It’s the handkerchief we use for Othello. It keeps being misplaced. One stage hand swears he saw it flying about in the wings like a bat, and that on catching it with a butterfly net it did bite him most fiercely. It has been replaced several times, but each time the handkerchief will not keep still. There have been reports of it suddenly appearing in the actors’ dressing rooms. The company is most perturbed and suspect there shall be a death among them. All their performances have been affected by the handkerchief. Mr Irving, who plays the Moor, terrifies all with his face darkened over; his murdering of Desdemona is the most repulsive thing I have ever seen on the stage.