Bad Behaviour at a Show

I posted in the Don Quixote thread in the plays section about a mobile phone halting the show yesterday.

I have a friend who buys a box of wine then takes the bag out for smuggling-into-theatre purposes. It's pretty glorious.

Oh man, I'd love to drink booze out of a "tampon" in public, can you imagine the faces of the immature men/boys around you? They can't even cope with the idea that tampons exist, let alone that someone might *do* something with one!

Don't always have a choice these days. The way the audience is controlled at gigs has taken much of the fun out of it. Apart from the small venues.

I've seen the scene & still don't get it but maybe it's better not to? Unfortunately it seems parents are not paying attention to the recommended 12+. I had 2 boys who looked about 8 & 10 in the row in front of me. They were reasonably behaved by children-in-theatre standards, apart from rather a lot of wriggling, but to me the show just doesn't seem suitable for children that young.

I don't have a kid, but I've taken kids to shows, and I'm always very aware of them the whole time. I try to book near the end of a row in case we need to make a swift exit, and I make sure they know I won't be answering any questions until the interval or end. (Show of hands: how many of us find that parents noisily explaining things to children are usually doing it off their own backs and not because their child has asked anything? *waves both arms frantically in the air*)

I always admire the parents who book tickets for their children but are entirely willing to leave the show and go home long before the end if necessary. It gives the kids experience of theatre, while quietly emphasising that disruptive behaviour doesn't belong in an auditorium, but also means the kids won't develop a neurosis about theatres being that place their parents force them into and won't let them leave or talk or move or do anything. It's a good attitude.

I recently witnessed Simon Stephens chaperoning a large group of (perfectly behaved) kids at the theatre, which was vaguely amusing somehow.

Given kids are allowed with parents to see films like Jurassic World or Batman v Superman which are at the extreme end of the 12A certificate, maybe parents might think Comedy about a Bank Robbery is suitable.

I think you make an excellent point about the immediacy of theatre making things way more disturbing, but if you consider the viewpoints of children themselves, I don't know if it really is that bad. It's extremely rare for a child to have a real sense of their own mortality (we all know we're going to die someday, but I was probably in my mid-twenties before I REALLY KNEW that I am going to die someday), so I don't know that they'd necessarily have the same revulsion as us unless it was a particularly young and/or sensitive child, who just doesn't like anything horrible happening and bursts into tears at the drop of a hat. Also death comes up a LOT in children's entertainment and it's generally treated a lot more straightforwardly than in entertainment aimed at adults. You know, if someone good dies it's sad, if someone bad dies it's well-deserved, and death is the standard because psychological torment or being screwed over by the government is just that little bit further beyond childish comprehension. Additionally, theatre is by its very nature unrealistic so unless you're taking them to see Danton's Death at the National (in which case could I borrow your time machine please?), they're less likely to see the act itself as realistic compared with film or television which goes all out with regards to realism and doesn't even have a reassuring curtain call at the end.

Sooo... I'd say it depends on the child, really. I'm not one of these people who thinks it's fine to show a child a violent war movie but god forbid they should see a female nipple, but I do remember what it's like being a child, and where fiction is concerned, it's rare they need to be as protected as a lot of people think they do.

Yes, I think the "look" of the show - website, posters, etc. - makes it look like a light-hearted crime caper. Which it mostly is for Act 1 & the start of Act 2 but it then gets darker. I'm seeing it again this Saturday matinee and, having just realised today that it's still the Easter holidays, I'll be interested to see how many kids there are in the audience. (At least this time I'm sitting front row so can't have any kids wriggling around in front of me.)

For the past year, my problem has less been with children and more with elderly theatre patrons. Mostly for talking to their neighbour, or like tonight at People Places and Things when the octogenarian behind me gasped several times towards the end (fair enough), before bellowing "Shocking!". Completely drew me out of the scene.

My main memory of Mary Poppins in London was the parents being much worse than the kids! Walking behind the last row of the front block to attend to their child (blocking lots of people's views) and eventually just lifting their child out. I have taken more groups of Scouts (all the way from 6 - 14) than I can count on one hand now and with a short briefing before hand always had great behaviour and often compliments from other patrons.