Bad Behaviour at a Show

I've noticed Director's taking notes on both their phones/tablets or notebooks. But if it is dark they probably have to use their phonelight really.

As regards where they sit it might be they just check where is available at the box office or sometimes may even want to see things from different positions in the auditorium to see how things look.

I went to a fairly serious play in Northampton a few years ago -- I forget which -- and we were on the front row of the circle in the small Royal auditorium surrounded by sixth-form students, all well behaved, but taking notes.

If I hadn't experienced it myself, I would not have believed it, but the amount of scratchy noise made in a very quiet auditorium by fibre-tip pens on an A4 pad was quite something.  It's a lot louder than you'd expect.  Coupled with the fact that stray lighting was catching the brilliant white paper, the more you tried to tune out the distraction, the more you noticed it.

I came to the view that students and critics should do like everyone else, watch the play as-is and then discuss it from memory.  If there's something you don't subsequently remember, it was probably not worthy of comment.

For creatives, they should either sit somewhere they are unobtrusive, or record the show from a static camera and use that as an aide-mémoire (and also useful for showing to performers, etc. if appropriate).

I’ve had a week of theatre this week as it’s been my summer week in London and been rather impressed by behaviour this week - however today during this afternoon’s performance of Mrs Doubtfire I was continuously felt up by the man next to me. (For context, I’m a big lad - but luckily for him I’m quite timid). At first I thought nothing of it as we were cramped in the seats and our legs were next to each other, but as the fingers of his hand on his knee wiggled more and more I got a little bit suspicious but didn’t think it was deliberate. Then in the second half, his hand moved down to under the arm rest and he kept trying to get his fingers under the hem of my shorts and onto my thigh… If I hadn’t used my arms as a barrier I wonder if he’d have tried to go further. As soon as the show was done I was up and running up the stairs to get out. What makes it worse, is that it wasn’t even his seat. He was meant to be the other side of the aisle, and when the guy who was meant to be sat in the seat came in, he thought we were together so offered to sit in this guy’s seat instead.

I didn’t want to make a scene about it so tried to move my legs away as much as I could (which is not much in the Shaftesbury Grand Circle) and the ruddy binocular bracket thing made it near impossible for me at times. I found myself just trying to focus on the show as much as I could and try to make my arm barrier as strong as possible. Until the interval it just felt a bit accidental with the close confines so didn’t feel the need to say anything then and afterwards I just wanted to get away.

But yeah, it wasn’t a nice experience and I hope it’s not a common occurance.

Sorry to hear that, sounds awful and hope you're okay. I don't think it's common, but I know this type of activity happens more than is ever reported.

Bloody hell!  Just !!!!!!  

Thanks for all the kind words. I’m thinking about emailing the theatre directly over the weekend and I hope that others don’t experience it. Thanks again.

None of this was accidental. I go out of my way to avoid "leg contact" with fellow theatregoers, which can be difficult in some seats. More than once I've given myself leg cramps trying to keep my thighs and knees to my own space, because I'm conscious how unpleasant it feels to have a stranger's limbs pushing against you. Report him to the theatre.

So sorry this happened , how horrible but next time , if there is one, tell him to keep his hands to himself, nice and loud. He /another one will buff and puff but stay firm and if ness ask for another seat. Don’t worry if in the middle of a song/scene. 

You must give it time. Allow time.

Wasn’t sure whether to post this in bad behaviour or the famous person thread.

About a minute before the Dr Semellweis curtain someone made their way into the middle of the row and sat next to me. I glanced up and low and behold it’s Mark Shenton. I’ve read many a piece by Mr Shenton and wondered if at the interval I’d strike up a conversation.

Unfortunately there was to be no kind words as he ended up being one of the worst people I’ve ever sat next to at the theatre. His main sin was his rucksack. It felt like every 5 or 10 minutes he would bend over, pull his bag into his lap and start going through its multiple pockets, most of the time to reach food. He spent enough time for 4 different people in the row in front to turn around and look at him as he rustled with what I think was a Twix in act 1, then moved onto something else that was individually wrapped for Act 2. Obviously one has to wash that down, so a separate minute or two of bag wrestling was required to uncover a Pepsi Max, which had to be unscrewed slowly so the fizz went on for 30 seconds.

Now maybe there was a medical reason for this, who knows, I’m sure he wouldn’t have done it deliberately. But midway through the second act he went back in for another bag session after his latest snack and this time pulled out an Apple Watch. He put that on, switched it on, then logged on with his PIN number. I tried to not care about all this, but every time he went for his bag his elbow would end up in my face, in case anyone thinks I wasn’t trying desperately to pay attention to the play and not my neighbours business, and then rest on my leg for a while after.

And as a little finale to the whole show within a show, he GOT UP FROM HIS SEAT during the final critical moments of the play, exited the row (which wasn’t a quick task) and disappeared off. I’m glad to see he found the performance mesmerising, so says his twitter account, I found it hard to be quite so engrossed.

To give him every benefit of the doubt if there are good reasons for the entirety of his behaviour then I would suggest he sit on the edge of a row, although even then I don’t think anyone needs to be snacking their way through a West End play, nor lighting themselves up with their watch. Poor form, bad behaviour.

The guy's an obnoxious d-head. This behaviour mirrors his behaviour at a press night at Regent's Park a couple of years ago. Forever stuffing his face and rummaging through that damned rucksack he carries with him before making an early exit like the primadonna that he is.

Yup - thirding this - sat next to him at the Bananaman press night at Southwark pre-covid (2018???), and he was acting like a prima-donna then.