"[I]t was several months before the Great Hall lost its pungent aroma of wood smoke, and even longer before Professor Beery’s head reassumed its normal proportions, and Professor Kettleburn was taken off probation."
-- Albus Dumbledore (TBB/FFF)
Once and only once, Hogwarts staff and students put on a production of the story from Tales of Beedle the Bard. The play was directed by Professor Herbert Beery. The infamous performance resulted in a duel between actors and a huge fire caused by the ashwinder Kettleburn brought in for the production. Dumbledore, who as a young teacher was responsible for the sets, describes it in his notes:
… the students playing Amata and Sir Luckless had been boyfriend and girlfriend until one hour before the curtain rose, at which point “Sir Luckless” transferred his affections to “Asha”. Suffice it to say that our seekers after Fair Fortune never made it to the top of the Hill. The curtain had barely risen when Professor Kettleburn’s “Worm” – now revealed to be an Ashwinder with an Engorgement Charm upon it – exploded in a shower of hot sparks and dust, filling the Great Hall with smoke and fragments of scenery. While the enormous fiery eggs it had laid … ignited the floorboards, “Amata” and “Asha” turned upon each other, duelling so fiercely that Professor Beery was caught in the crossfire, and staff had to evacuate the Hall, as the inferno now raging onstage threatened to engulf the place. (TBB/FFF)
Timeline Notes
Dumbledore writes in his commentary on Fountain of Fair Fortune that this infamous performance happened when he was "a young Transfiguration teacher." Since Dumbledore started teaching shortly before Tom Riddle came to Hogwarts in 1937, we can assume that this event happened in the 1930s.