I came, I saw, I scarpered.

one day a writer might surprise me! One day...…………...

I can think of one time when I wanted to leave at the interval, husband convinced me to stay and the second act was worth it. It was SRB in that high-tech Tempest at the Barbican.

The combination of one of our finest actors and Shakespeare made me give it the benefit of the doubt. Yer man from the Wire and a rarely revived Arthur Miller? I know when to cut my losses.

That's really reassuring to hear as I love Sondheim but disliked London Road. I didn't understand all the praise LR got so much so that I thought I misunderstood something

I read on here that Sondheim also walked out of wonder.land

I guess the guy doesn't like Rufus Norris then?

I WISH I could have left Shakespeare in Love, Once and Rylance-directed Much Ado.

I left Edward II at the NT at the interval, was on my own and couldn't get out quick enough.

You know for 30 years I sat through everything. To the bitter end. Clinging sometimes to a vain hope that the bit post interval would reinvent the form, suddenly improve beyond recognition, or make me realise why all the reviews were stellar. And I sat through some interminable drivel. I cannot stress this enough.

Then one day in 2011, I threw off the shackles. I recall a beautiful sunny afternoon but it may have been raining or foggy as memory plays rose coloured tricks, and this is the day I gave myself my freedom.

Outside the Theatre Royal Haymarket at the interval of The Tempest with Ralph Fiennnes, I realised that a Smurf version of the play would be better than what I was watching. And I knew what was going to happen at the end. Why suffer? I strolled away , nobody stopped me, there were no cries of 'traitor' or 'unclean philistine'. I had paid my money and taken my choice. Nobody cared and nobody was effected but me. Bliss.

I use the gift sparingly and probably most for things I know the plot/story of and am just not feeling the production. Martin Freeman's Richard III was another, although the seating at Traflgar Studios probably helped that decision too. I will never again darken the foyer of a Martin McDonagh play having left at the interval of both The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, both dreadful faux Father Ted sketches in my eyes, yet I like his films. I think that about covers my shameful leavings but for the sake of completeness:

Things I Wish I'd Left at Interval:

The recent Tony & Cleo
That thing with Ben Whishaw at the Almeida, Against??
IHO - not writing it all out, the Kushner play.

Things that had there been an interval, I would have left burn marks on the carpet in my haste to leave:

Fun Home
The Red Barn

Someone in the trade told me that ALW never stays till the end of anything.

He certainly didn't stay to the end of composition classes

As an epileptic, I often worry that I will have to quit when the strobes start to flash.Theatres nearly always post warnings to such effect.Usually I close my eyes and look down when they start and then my daughter gives me a nudge when they are done if she is with me.

All posts are judgmental, we all use our judgement. I won't apologise for my opinions either. "Walking out" for me by the way means during the performance, not at the interval, and it is rude if you disturb other members of the audience. As it happens I normally sit in an aisle seat so if I am ever tempted to act against my own advice I won't disturb anyone.

I have left a lot of performances in the interval, especially back in the days when I was holding down a full-time office job in the daytime and then going to opera, ballet, concerts or shows in the evenings when I wasn't playing the piano for music hall or variety.  The main reason was to conserve my energy for whatever I was doing the following day and night, and I could usually tell after ten or fifteen minutes whether I had become immersed in what was happening on the stage or whether my mind remained unengaged.  If that happened, then I would try to work out what it was about the show that I didn't like or why I remained detached and if I still felt the same by the interval I would go home.  

No doubt I missed the occasional good second act, and on the advice of the Theatremonkey I did go back to see the second act of Wicked a few days after I had left a preview in the interval and it did certainly improve after the interval but in general I don't regret those second acts that I missed.  I have very occasionally experienced a great second act after I had resisted the temptation to go home early but those occasions are few and far between and I stick by my principles, as witness my leaving the current version of Rip It Up after making the effort of dragging my old bones to the Beck Theatre at Hayes to see those wonderful boys, who alas were not being presented to advantage in a very unsatisfactory production – but that's another story...!

I left a musical at the Landor in the interval, a few years back. Trouble is audience was sparse to begin with, and everyone left the auditorium at the interval. Was sat in bar while they were calling out 2nd act was meant to start. No one went back up stairs.. We buggered off.
It truly was a dire production, but afterwards did feel a bit bad for cast to find out there audience had completely disappeared!

Now what would have been worse us saying for the 2nd act being the only 3 people in a 70 odd seat theatre, or what did happen and they find out no audience left?