I think I frightened a man half to death last night

[Parrotcup]

I went to the theatre on my own, something I've recently discovered I love doing.

Unusually, this time I was seated next to another person on their own. A man similar age to me.

Anyway I'm not particularly outgoing or chatty but it felt weird sitting next to him for 2 hours without saying hello - the woman on the other side of me, who was with friends, had made smalltalk about the show before it started and in the interval.

So towards the end of the interval, I asked a benign question about the performance. He honestly looked terrified, gave a very short answer and we went back to sitting in silence.

At the end he was gone before the lights came up.

Is it that weird to acknowledge the person next to you at the theatre?

Lots of women don't like random men trying to talk to them, perhaps he doesn't want a random woman talking to him.

I'd also start a conversation with someone next to me - and happily stop again if they clearly didn't want chat. 😁

I think your actions were completely fine. He probably had social anxiety or something similar.

You did nothing wrong. Neither did he. He's probably overthinking it too.

You've clearly never suffered with social anxiety - it can be pretty terrible when it wants to be.

You did nothing wrong. My partner would react like this though due to his anxiety.
People tend to think he's rude/unfriendly as his anxiety can get really bad.
To the people saying he was rude, you know nothing about his circumstances.

its totally fine you feel this way, but you’d never last in many places outside London.

Im not particularly outgoing, but find myself chatting to people standing in queues, sitting at bus stops and next to me all the time. The vast majority chat back, so I’d say it was very unusual for people not to make small talk with strangers sharing the same space.

everyone is entitled not to engage- not everyone wants to chat all the time.

I never go to the theatre alone but I do go a lot (at least twice a month) and almost always end up chatting to someone next to me. It much more common in matinee performances I find. My local theatre has a group you can join to discuss the shows aimed at single attenders. Lots of people go alone as their friends don't have the same interests etc. I suspect the issue was him and not you OP