To ask what poor theatre etiquette you’ve witnessed?

I no longer go to concerts, cinema or theatre. I can’t stand the bad behaviour. Tickets are expensive but the behaviour is cheap.

Oh yes the thickos that talk back to the performer. They are special.

That’s awful. This lot were, like me, middle aged women. Yours is a lot worse though. It was odd though to be threatened and I dud have to have a word with myself not to turn round, if they’d not been thrown out shortly after I’d have gone to the usher. I just wanted to turn round and tell her how utterly rough and uncouth she was that getting me was even a thought that came into her head. Who says that sort of stuff??! Imagine having her as your mum.

Id have done the same with teenagers , good for you.

I do understand the frustration about people coming late, but equally find it annoying when people with seats towards the end of a row arrive early, park themselves in them then huff and eye roll as every other person in that row on that side has to ask if they could please squeeze past them to get to their own seats. Just have a drink in the bar and come in once the bulk of the audience has arrived!

A man at the Met Opera in New York whose hearing aid whistled through the entire performance and who got angry with his wife and denied it was whistling when she repeatedly asked him to sort it.

Agree.

I have had people taking selfies, for which they have to hold it up above their head to get the flattering angle and keep it there while they play with head angles, rearrange their botox into a pout and flick their hair about everywhere, entirely obscuring the view.

I'm sure they post it on their SM to show how very "culchured" they are, going to the theatre!

Then they sit in the dark scrolling and not even watching the performance. Clearly there just to get the photo op.

Not the same because it wasn’t the theatre but I went to see Peter Kay 2 years ago and this woman got so drunk, we were all the way in the back he was basically an ant to us, and he would say something like “do you ever do this thing where you blah blah blah” and this drunk woman was screaming “omg yes peter i do!!!!!” She was annoying everyone, she was screaming stuff like “Peter, tell the joke about….” We were about a mile away I don’t know if she thought he’d here her or what but it was horrendous

Ah this happened recently as a family member of mine is currently performing in Kinky Boots. I had 2 ladies next to me who were drinking, filming it and just making loads of noise and chatting throughout. Ok it wasn't like everyday chat, just about how much the show was great but still very annoying. In the end the people on the other side of them complained. The complainers got moved and the two women got told to be quiet. I think they'd have been asked to leave had it not been 10 mins to finale.

I saw Jersey Boys and two women nearby acted as though it was a concert, not a show. In every song they stood up and danced and went Woooo! Wooo! really loud. Each time, staff told them to sit down. The last time they did it, they were turning round saying Come on! Come on! to people around them. The staff came over again and some people behind them were telling them to shut up and they behaved themselves after that.

With cricket matches being so long and also not always the same length, I get the impression people only have that day off/said they'd be back at such a time not knowing it would run longer than that.

'Cretin' is an offensive ableist slur just so you are aware.

Which is ironic given your post.

I Need an end seat. Mostly I just accept the fact that I can rarely go to the theatre because it is so difficult to get an end of row seat with leg room.
The only theatre that will help is the Barbican.
The other London theatres want written proof of PIP. I don't qualify for PIP. So I just don't go.

I took a group of 7 year olds to see Pocahontas for DDs birthday. Didn't think the fostered child would get hysterical at John Smith leaving Pocahontas behind. Some issues with abandonment due to her past. So there I am assuring her he goes back for her, they lived happily ever after. After I'd settled her down I could see a woman giving me disapproving looks. Not sure if she was annoyed by the noise or my lies.

People should be chucked out on the first offence. We're far too tolerant of shitty behaviour. Once someone checks their phone once, I'm on edge and can't concentrate on the performance as I'm waiting for the cretin to do it again.

I went to see a play where the lead actor was obviously drinking off stage and got progressively more drunk as the play went on.

Not theatre, but I once went to watch a standup show and had the pleasure of sitting in front of someone who seemed to be in a race to get to the punchline before the comedian. Constant utterings and misplaced laughing at their own conclusion.

pissed me off no end!!

Visiting the Uk in December, we booked for Moulin rouge which we have seen before so we just got the cheapest seats, up in the gods. Our row was bar stool height seating and we actually had a really good view. The row in front of us was much lower, as people walked to their seats they were roughly up to our knees. However, the guy in front of me and DD decided to stand up part way through the show and then proceeded to kind of rotate from the waist, leaning right forward. He was in and out of our view every few seconds! It was bizarre and we kept thinking he’ll stop in a minute but eventually DD tapped his shoulder and said if you really must stand can you at least stand still! He slunk back down into his seat.

Children's theatre group performance, child in audience in similar costume to the female lead.(there were a few) You could see her fidgeting excitedly, her mum then virtually pushed her onto the stage(steps at the side) where she proceeded to sing along side the shocked lead. Utter chaos ensued. Turns out girl wanted the part, didn't get it, left the company, and mum hatched the plot. They stopped the show, kids in tears, they were escorted out. Break then show went on.

As someone from an underprivileged background, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve discovered a love of theatre as an adult and never grew up knowing the etiquette. I find this utterly patronising.

I took my Dd to Matilda in the West End - her first proper theatre experience. She was youngish but excited and it was an evening show, not a matinee, so I gave her the talk about being quiet, sitting still, go to the loo before it starts, you can have a sweet quietly but no rustling wrappers, the whole thing. She got it and was well prepared. Imagine her - and my - surprise when the family next to us sweep in with a huge tray of doughnuts and start handing them out mid-show, along with rummaging in a bag every two minutes for more snacks! And I was shocked at a family show to see people coming back from the bar at the interval with pints and pints of beer. I like a glass of wine sometimes at a show but it’s not a pub crawl!

Not a theatre but a posh concert hall. Somebody got up and left during a piece. Presumably went for a pish and then came back to his seat during the next piece.
And no he wasn't at the end of a row he was in the middle!

I cannot actually understand how ushers allowed him back in or at leastdidnt make him stand and wait at the back until there was applause to go back to his eat.

It gave me the rage.

When dd and I watched Everybody's Talking about Jamie someone complained to someone near them about noise and was called a fat cow in response. Charming

I was once at an international cricket match where we were losing and people were leaving in droves. Only for us to make a comeback and end up winning!

It was sometime in the late 1980s and I can’t even remember which match, but it was a really exciting ending and many people missed it 🤣

Some men love to tell off women and girls, don’t get me started.

Indeed. And you've reminded me (this is not about the theatre but similar) about people who pay a lot for tickets to football matches and then leave beofre the end - to get ahead of the traffic, apparently.

I go to Old Trafford, which is usually sfull of 73 thousand people - some of whom routinely (the family who sit in front of us, for example) get up and head off before the end. I mean - why bother going?