Bad Behaviour at a Show

Perhaps the theatres / producers could offer a new and differently named type of ‘access’ performance, for all those who want to get drunk, chat, rustle their crisps in the quiet bits, and singalong badly through the whole show. Then these awful audience members would have the opportunity to go along and behave badly, and hopefully wouldn’t book for the other performances in the run!

Akbar always strikes me as a critic that doesn't really seem to like theatre all that much.

A friend of mine used to manage a theatre and refused to allow drinking in the auditorium. Never had any bad behaviour and audiences members never seemed to mind. Eventually some new trustees joined the board and pushed through overruling him to bring in drinking. There has been lots of bad behaviour since - although never at plays, only musicals and live music nights - and my friend has left management. The theatre concerned did boost its bar profits by 10% but complaints went through the roof and my friend left. The venue is now in a mess.

I find it bizarre that Akbar celebrates and champions the manner in which audiences across the Globe interact with theatre/performance but is seemingly unable to accept that we have our own culture around theatre attendance. If I was in Italy at the opera she attended - with the families eating pizzas - I would embrace that culture and not resort to the 'shushing'/telling looks that I may be inclined to do if I was watching a play at The National.

I agree with you that she seems to dislike theatre and whatever faults Michael Billington had - and there were many - at least he clearly had a deep routed love for it. On a slight tangent, I find rent-a-controversial-quote Kirsty Sedgman - who seems to pop up like a whack-a-mole to offer opinions - equally bizarre as for someone with very strong opinions about Theatre she doesn't seem to actually attend plays...

I've definitely noticed a decline in theatre etiquette over the last few years but am not certain what the solution is but it definitely isn't reducing the amount of cheaper tickets. Maybe every show to have a quick pre-recorded message about how to conduct yourself when watching a live performance and theatres should only sell soft sweets served in polystyrene cups?

I've always said what we need is a less polite and more direct approach to customer service. Staff in New York will eat you alive if you step out of line.

I asked for these to be built into the seats when our theatre was refurbished some years ago.

"F20's got his phone out again"  ZAP
"H25 is singing along, drunk, and filming the show" ZAP ZAPPITY ZAP ZAP


Or for us to have the facility to drop stalls seats into the basement where there'd be an usher standing by to slap the offending audience member, confiscate the phone, and send them back up again.

Sadly both ideas were deemed impractical 

Was at An Inspector Calls in Liverpool yesterday. School kids everywhere, including one in my seat, who to be fair to him did move without me having to ask. All manner of sweets and snacks on show, including one girl passing around a cake, which was a first. Not a little cake either, one of those supermarket birthday cakes in a box.

It was the teachers I found annoying though. There was an announcement made from the stage that the show was late starting because of a problem with the comms, with the audience told to remain seated, but no the teachers were marching up and down the aisles.

Checking on the inmates.. you ever taken a school group to the theatre? 

Sad to report this: matinee Guys and Dolls today -  little kid, maybe 3 yrs old with mother behind us in Gallery 2. Didn’t stop talking. In the end someone went out ( not me actually ) and complained and they were asked to leave. Turns out they had another kid and adult sitting in front of them so I’m asking myself why didn’t one see the show and one look after the kids and then book again later in reverse. Too expensive? No, because in the end none of them saw the show at all. I sympathise with the parents, I really do, been there with the T shirts but I have never taken a kid into a show when he was too young for it and couldn’t keep quiet. I sympathise more with the kid who screamed the length of the foyer when taken out and whose parents have no idea. Harsh I know but there you are.

Was that from the dogs or members of the audience? 

It's a Sunday evening so there won't be a huge number of performances affected.

Evening church services on the other hand...

I assume if the phone is on airplane mode, it won't get the noise and message.

I finished my shift shortly after the headliner went on last night and while waiting for the lift there were some people near me with a man complaining that he left early because of some fool next to him in the pit live streaming the set ("for his whole two followers"), with his phone brightness up all the way and feeling the need to describe what was happening - shouting, as it was a metal show. I will sometimes go up to the mezzanine to look down and see how a set is going, and the number of mobiles continuously lit up and pointed toward the stage is always surprising. I can understand capturing a verse or two, but what is the point of live music or live theatre if you're more focused on your mobile screen than on the performers? I've seen some artists flat out tell the audience to "put the f***ing phones away" but it does no good.