when at a performance of Hamlet...

[tokyonambu]

...to think that (a) having a whispered plot conference with your companion after every scene and (b) clapping your hands or (worse) slapping your thighs every time you hear a line you recognise are the signs of an idiot? I'd heard the joke about the person who left a performance of Hamlet saying that they'd enjoyed it, but the script was just a load of famous quotes, but I didn't expect to see it in action. And camcordering the curtain call because John Simm is in it? FFS.

I know, I know, when in the provinces Rome, expect provincials Romans, but it's rather annoying.

Still, not as

No need for the snide dig at Sheffield folk.

oh sympathies OP, the Northern Prole should not be allowed to access culture. They ruin it for us highbrow types

[sniff]

If you can't beat them, join them.

Yell "Over 'ere son, on me 'ead!" when the skull appears.

God, northerners having fun at a cultural event?, call Dave, pronto.

Why so sneery?

Did they shout "he's behind you" when his Dad appeared?

one mustn't enjoy Shakespeare, one must sit with a pole up ones arse and endure it.

arf @ talker

I was full of envy at the thread title - tickets for Hamlet are sold out until mid-December ...

Then I saw you were talking about Hamlet being performed in Sheffield

So now, I'm not envious at all :)

What's a Shakespeare when it's at home then?

Don't get me started on the Bristolian who joined in singing to "la donna e mobile" at Rigoletto once.

I might have had some sympathy with you OP if it was not for the completely unnecessary dig at "provincials".

That just showed you up for the snob you are.

Yabu- these people were obviously enjoying a treat and were excited and happy to be there, begruding them that is terribly petty tbh

I agree with Hippo.

Why not go the whole hog and suggest that the price of theatre tickets be raised even further, so that us Northern oiks just can't go at all and will have to sit at home with our toasted Hovis and the whippet instead, whilst doffing ur flat caps and smoking Woodbines?

I agreed with you re: the behaviour but slagging off the provinces just made you look silly.

I think you are being unreasonable. If other people in the audience annoy you, you should watch a DVD of it at home. The point of theatre is it's live and the audience response is part of it.

If you'd been watching it in Shakey's time, the audience would have been shouting advice, cheering, drinking, booing and throwing tomatoes. And Ophelia would have been played by a bloke.

Was going to post what Schwarlock said. I studied this for my ten a penny literature degree back in the day and sat through all the classes (which I loved) contemplating the fact that it was the equivalent of a degree in soaps. Far from highbrow when Will set quill to parchment.

Now if you were really posh, OP, you wouldn't even have a clue that they were filming John Simm specifically, as you would not know what he is famous for.

La donna e mobile? Thought you were going to say Just One Cornetto, mardybra!

One of my lovely aunties once came to a concert where I was playing in an orchestra and said really loudly "ooooh look at them big violins!" (pointing at the cellos). God bless her!

Seriously though, the OP had me till the bit about the provinces. In fairness there's nothing worse than trying to watch a play or opera with one of those tiresome types who laughs loudly and knowingly at every tiny pun or historical in-joke, looking round to make sure everyone has noticed that they get the joke (yes, yes we know you know the play ..... how sad that you have to tolerate plebs like me in the audience!)

I have never heard of John Simm.

I agree with the Op completely.

Y were not U until the "provinces" bit.

Then you were very U.

I've had all manner of performances ruined by braying Arabellas and Tiggys. Being a claptrap transcends the classes, you know?

I was with you up until the "provincials" dig.

Saw the John Simm Hamlet at the Crucible a few weeks ago. Very good, I thought.

(The one thing I have never really "got" about the plot of Hamlet is how much of the tragedy stems not from the story of Hamlet avenging his father as such, but from the events unfolding after the death of Polonius, which is not a "dramatically necessary" event - it's just a random, accidental stabbing.)

When we went to see Hamlet at the Barbican many moons ago we had on one side a mother who started whispering the plot to her children each side of her but then worked out it would be simpler to just say it loudly so they could both hear.

On the other side we had a bunch of high school students on a school trip who jostled their Harrods bags throughout and then left early saying "might as well go now, it is obvious Hamlet is going to die".

It was not my idea of an ideal theatre experience.

When I went to see Hamlet at the Kings in Edinburgh (in 1984), I got off with Stevie Jones and threw sweets at all my classmates (the po faced pensioners tutting and clucking because I was getting a tongue sanwich).

It was my ideal theatre experience.

Dh and I did abandon a production of the Danish play a few years back at around Act three. Mark Rylance was so far up his own arse that we were practically vomiting. That was at the Globe.