Actress Maureen Lipman has fainted on stage during a West End performance.

Currently appearing in the political drama The Best Man, written by Gore Vidal, the 72-year-old had not been on stage long when she took ill.

One audience member said it was about 10 minutes into the production at the Playhouse Theatre in central London when Lipman said: “I’m not feeling very well.”

An employee at the theatre told the Press Association: “She did faint, but everything seems to be fine, she did not go to hospital or anything, she just went home for the evening.”

Quizzed on how Lipman was, they said: “I did not see anything wrong, she was alert and talked normally – I don’t know why she fainted but as far as I could tell she seemed fine.”

It is understood the show stopped for around 10 minutes after she became unwell, restarting with someone else playing her character.