Keira Knightley has had to miss a performance of her Broadway play because of a “minor injury”, leading to the evening show being cancelled.

The actress’s bad luck followed an earlier disruption to her play Therese Raquin, when a man in the audience threw flowers in the middle of the production and had to be removed from the theatre.

Roundabout Theatre Company, who are behind the latest version of Emile Zola’s tragic tale and had to call off the October 7 performance, said it expected Keira to return for the October 8 preview.

Keira Knightley with the Therese Raquin company
Keira Knightley with the Therese Raquin company (Lukas Greyson/AP)

This isn’t the first time the show has made news even before it officially opens. Keira, who plays the title character in the play, was onstage on October 1 with Gabriel Ebert when a young man in the mezzanine got up, went to the railing and shouted.

Keira did not break character, and the man was heard to say: “Five seconds is too long to wait for a response!” An usher came and escorted the man back to his seat. When security arrived, the man tossed the flowers on his way out.

The disturbance took place at the Studio 54 Theatre, the same location where last year actor Shia LaBeouf was handcuffed during a performance of Cabaret for yelling obscenities.

Keira made her West End debut in 2009 in the comedy The Misanthrope and two years later starred in Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour. Last year, she revealed that she tore a muscle running through a door while filming The Imitation Game.