and so whenever his tutor would take him to the theatre , with half the pit occupied by his armed guards , and hed be taken backstage after the performance to meet the hamlets or the siegmunds or the penthesileas , he demanded that his guards execute the actors instantly , otherwise the entirety of his universe collapsed and the young tsarevich would writhe on the floor and foam at the mouth and speak in tongues and no one wanted a crippled epileptic on the throne of russia so they complied and the actors were put to the sword by the reluctant armed guards and the actors they would lie no more .