Bad Behaviour at a Show

I was at that performance too! Upper Circle B24. He ducked down at the side of the bed facing my side of the stage. How "Innogen" kept her face straight I'll never know

Oh come now robadog, are you telling me that given half the chance, if you had a cattle prod you wouldn't be dashing around the theatre like Usain Bolt giving some of these people a well deserved shock? I think we all would. Even Mother Theresa would have been pushed to the limit on occasions methinks.

To be honest, I'd happily give some of these people a couple of shocks rather than just the initial one.

My bad.

Titanic tonight, woman behind me with her daughter, I'd guess the girl was about 10. She was fine until about two thirds of the way through the first half, but after that seemed to get very fidgety and was asking her mum questions incessantly, and having them answered. I'm all in favour of parents introducing their children to theatre, and to their credit, the child's questions seemed to be about the show, but surely sometimes a child is just too young - the questions were mainly the standard 'who's that? what did he say? why's he doing that?' style of thing, but honestly... part of introducing children to the theatre is introducing them to the concept of shushing and listening.

I had the sweetie bag behind me, the bottle of water in front of me and the ants-in-his-pants beside me at Romeo & Juliet last night.

Curtain up, and the sweetie bag is routing through for her favourites. Eventually her companion gives her a whisper and - no, doesn't stop, just seems to go in v-e-r-y s-l-o-w motion...

Woman in front continually swigging from water bottle, so at time I'm viewing the stage through double plastic.

Man beside me is so bored. So. Bored. Takes over the arm rest, bends arm and leans head on his hand. His head is practically on my shoulder. I'm stunned he came back after the interval. Adopted the same position with additional squirming as woman in front has swapped places with her significant other who is significantly taller. But hey, no bottle of water - - ah, there it is, now he has a bottle of water and ...

Additionally, at the start, two young people 4 and 5 seats in from me (me = K1 Stalls) taking seats a few minutes before curtain up, then a husband and wife (being the mother and father of the party in front) arrive and look in confusion as the young couple are in their seats. I lean in, and say I think you are in the wrong seats - not a word, they up and head for the back row.

Topped off by - oh, yes, ain't finished yet - the usher get her folding seat out by the doors, produces her book (Gone Girl) and starts to read, all through to the interval.

You must be the only person who the 'drink 2l of water a day' thing passed by.

It's nonsense, but it got repeated for years by every pseudo-health professional, personal trainer, 'nutritionist', diet guru, and even some doctors and nurses got taken in by it.

There isn't an actual target amount of liquid one should drink a day, but dehydration is a serious health problem that's easily fixable by just drinking regularly throughout the day. There's no 'pseudo-science' in how dehydration causes kidney stones, as a prime example. It's not essential obviously to drink continuously during a play, but it would be silly if people thought that staying hydrated wasn't something to aim for.

Well, obviously: if you don't get enough liquid, you die.

But that wasn't the point of the '2 ltr of water' a day brigade, and it was specifically water they banged on about, sponsored by the bottled-water companies.

It's been touted as a diet aid ('people mistake thirst for hunger - drink water instead of eating'!), as a beauty aid ('good for your skin!' 'good for your hair!') as a health and fitness aid....

There really are people who think they shgould be drinking pretty much continuosly throughout the day. There are people in my office who fill up one of those big sports water bottles - intended for people doing vigorous activity - and keep it at their desk all day, making sure they drink it all before they go home.

And then there was the case of the famous actor rushed to hospital because he drank too much water!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3736412/Single-mother-33-took-10-month-old-baby-West-End-performance-American-Idiot-thrown-breastfeeding-10-minutes-show.html

Never mind the breastfeeding, a tiny baby at American Idiot?

I don't think people would complain about the baby unless there was an actual distraction like, oh I don't know, a hungry baby crying?

I despair at some people sometimes. This breastfeeding malarkey has gone insane, yes feed your kid but 1 woman complained about been told to get out a pool whilst the wave machine was on (serious health and safety issue) and then this woman threatening to sue because she was booted out a theatre. It's almost like they want to cause sensational headlines by doing these crazy things.
Who takes a 10 month old to the theatre and expects to feed and carry on as if she was in her front room...there's a time and place for everything and in the middle of a show is probably not a place I'd think of feeding my kid.
Right might come down off my high horse - sorry rant over!!