A couple who co-wrote a play commemorating Oct. 7 based on survivors’ testimonies staged the first showing of the play at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., Tuesday, but the performance was disrupted by the fire alarm.

The husband and wife team, Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, is calling on police to investigate the incident.

In an interview with an Israel-based outlet, McAleer said, “these people are demonic.”

“Disrupting the truth, disrupting stories of tragedy and heroism. They should be ashamed of themselves,” he said. “This just makes us all the more determined to take this play to every campus across America.”

“The police must investigate this,” he told the outlet. “The people responsible must be found and prosecuted.”

McElhinney posted about the incident on X along with a video of the alarm going off and people evacuating.

“Right now at Northwestern Our play October 7 has been disrupted by someone setting off a fire alarm. The whole theater has to be evacuated. This hits even stronger because it’s already October 7 in Israel,” she wrote.

The disruption delayed the finishing of the performance even more than a simple evacuation would warrant because, while security allowed the attendees to return to their seats, they searched everyone first. Nevertheless, the play finished to a standing ovation.