I went up to London the other day to see the Nutcracker at the Coliseum. It was a matinee and advertised as a child-friendly performance, and the audience was packed with parents and children. It was noisy, there were sweets being unwrapped and handed round during the performance, and whispered running commenteries. I think it's a good thing to introduce children to theatre-going early, and was willing to tolerate such distractions. But one child began crying during the second act, and cried throughout several dances, including the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, yet its mother did not take it outside. It was incredibly distracting to me (it ruined my enjoyment, in fact), and must have been just as distracting to the dancers and musicians. Am I being unreasonable in thinking that this child should have been removed from the audience by its mother, or failing that, that both should have been asked to go outside until the child stopped crying?