to think that able bodied, neurotypical adults should be able to behave appropriately in a theatre?

[DrSeuss]

I don't often get to the theatre as tickets are very expensive. Therefore, when I do go, I don't want it spoiled.

Based on today's trip, someone needs to tell some members of the audience the following-
Find your seat in advance of the show, not ten minutes in.
Buy your snacks and drinks in advance, not at intervals through the show so that half your row has to stand to let you out.
Buy appropriate snacks, i.e., ones that can be eaten without a lot of noise, not ones that crunch loudly or have wrappers that make a lot of noise.
If the show is different to the film, I don't need to know nor do I need your extended opinion on this mid show.
Similarly, I do not want to hear your loud predictions on what will happen next.

All of the above were behaviours from adults who appeared to be neurotypical. I fully accept that some of them may not have been but surely not all of them? My nine year old daughter was better behaved than many adults, having been told from her first trip to the theatre as a much smaller child that it was necessary to sit still and be quiet.

I will probably told that I sound judgemental. Mostly, I resent spending my limited resources on a treat which I have been looking forward to for ages then having it spoiled. Would they like it if I came and jumped around in front of their much anticipated TV programme making a lot of noise?

Totally agree

People these days are rude and entitled

Although I entirely agree with your points, why on earth were the theatre not policing it? People shouldn’t a) be allowed to come in late or b) be sold snacks during the performance.
Which theatre was it? (so I can make sure I never go).

I have ASD and I sometimes think that we’re better at following rules than other people are!

People are just clueless and thoughtless.

I hear you

I took my sister as a birthday treat and we had to ask to be moved because of a group of 20 or so behaving like it was a gathering at their home

The staff were reluctant to move us, like they thought it was normal

Overall I agree, but you object to people leaving their seats during the interval? Surely most people get up then.

Yes, all of the above. No respect for cast members or the audience.
Tbh, I often think that some people have no idea how to behave appropriately in any situation if it involves having consideration for others

Regional theatre, not one of the big London ones. We were in the very cheapest nose bleed seats. The aisles are very, very steep and an attendant coming down would probably have just caused more disturbance. I would like to see the staff given super soakers to dowse the unruly from the sidelines!

Is it possible that theatre going is just less common now? Once it was a principal source of entertainment, not a big, expensive teat. It may have been some people's first trip, I suppose, may be they really don't know what to do, although you would think sit down and shut up would be obvious!

No problem with them moving during the interval but do they really need refills mid performance?

The theater had to take some blame for snacks. One theater sold pop corn in big, plastic wrap. That was quiet (!)

I hadn't been to the theatre in years. My DD wanted to see Mousetrap.

I was shocked at the behaviour. I go to the pictures in rough parts of Liverpool and I've never seen the behaviour i saw, from Adults.

I wish our local Theatre stopped people coming in with cooked food, Macdonalds and the like.

Although I entirely agree with your points, why on earth were the theatre not policing it? People shouldn’t a) be allowed to come in late

Totally agree. We went to see the Lion King. At ££££££££ each per ticket, total open-wallet surgery. Massive treat. It started, with the guy -spoiler alert!- singing from the box. Fantastic! Absolutely electrifying. Then we had to all stand up to let two women who had only just arrived get to their seats RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROW*. They were clutching all their shopping bags from Oxford Street and large drinks so had clearly not just panted in due to some travel emergency.

• Balloon's Law - in a theatre or cinema the seats nearest the centre of a row are always the last to be filled.

I

Many years ago, pre kids when I had more money, I was at an RSC performance starring Patrick Stewart where someone's phone went off. He turned, stared and waited!

Op yanbu. I'd love to take my dc to the theatre but I know not all of them would cope with sitting for long periods.

I suspect the 'on demand' viewing we are being accustomed to these days is a contributory cause to a lack of appropriate behaviour in theatres. After all, you can pause live tv, grab snacks, go to the toilet etc and there's rarely if ever a queue for the bathroom.

I've noticed similar in quiz shows that I enjoy watching. When the normal ones are on, barely a whisper from the audience. As soon as a celebrity one is on, whoops and cheers from the audience. It detracts from my enjoyment as I'm watching it for the quiz, not the participants.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, absolutely 100% agree. So many idiots crunching popcorn, rustling sweet wrappers, commenting to their friends. So infuriating!! Can you not be QUIET for a couple of hours!????!!

I've noticed similar in quiz shows that I enjoy watching. When the normal ones are on, barely a whisper from the audience. As soon as a celebrity one is on, whoops and cheers from the audience. It detracts from my enjoyment as I'm watching it for the quiz, not the participants.

I had tickets to be in the audience of a recent recording of a sleb quiz show. It was great fun but the whooping and cheering was encouraged by the production staff - they made us re-do a return from an advert break three times, before they were happy that we'd been sufficiently enthusiastic!

Absolutely agree, if you can’t arrive on time sit quietly and then the theatre isn’t for you.

Years ago I went to see Wicked at Victoria for the first time, I’d never seen it before but had heard great things so was very excited. It turns out that by chance that particular performance was the last of a longer running cast member, and a lot of Wicked diehard ‘fans’ had bought up the entire front row to mark the occasion. They were all wearing branded hoodies and T-shirts etc. Throughout the entire first half they whooped and cheered and loudly sang along like it was a bloody panto. There must have been in jokes or fan specific references you’d only recognise if you knew the show well as they’d occasional burst out cheering over innocuous lines - like the rocky horror show. It absolutely ruined it for me, so distracting and completely took me out of the story. Occasionally I couldn’t even hear dialogue over the shouting. They were better behaved in the second half as I think the staff told them to shut their mouths.

I just found it so arrogant, like they felt they had more of a right to the performance than the rest of the audience and didn’t care how their behaviour impacted others. Fortunately I saw it again a few years later and enjoyed it much more, it’s easier to engage when people aren’t screeching over key dialogue lines!

All the London theatres I've been to recently have an app you can download to order and pay for drinks and snacks to be brought to your seat or pre order for the interval. It's absolutely brilliant as it stops all the crazy queues and people heading back to their seats late as they couldn't get served in time but... you can order during the performance! Why?!! Although it's less disruptive than people getting up mid play to to get their own drinks, I suppose.

I go to the theatre very regularly in London and this behaviour drives me insane. I pay for the good seats and it makes me cross when people act like this. I tend to find its fully grown adults that cause the most trouble not people with SN or kids (I blame the parents when the kids misbehave in the theatre as they should remove them if they are annoying the people around them during any performance)Though I find attendants can be great at telling people off and not letting people in mid performance and terrible at it in others, I have told people myself to stop talking before. I was brought up going to the theatre from a very young age and was always told to sit quietly and not mess around and although I don’t take my dd to many shows I always tell her the same. Sorry for the rant theatre etiquette is a big thing for me.

Were you at Frankenstein today OP?

No problem with them moving during the interval but do they really need refills mid performance?

No they really don't, and YANBU at all. The price of theatre tickets is crazy and it is a treat for virtually everyone. Why adults would behave like this I just don't know. Or why the theatres allow it.

I took DC to see the Lion King in a regional theatre recently and in addition to the rustling of sweet packets etc and toddlers whingeing, which I can just about manage, there was a constant hum of conversation across the entire theatre. The people (ADULTS) behind us had a full-blown conversation about the costumes - ‘ooooh isn’t that clever how they’ve done the giraffe/zebra/elephant’... after turning around to glare at them I eventually hissed, “will you please stop talking, it is very distracting”. But with everyone else talking, the fact they eventually stopped didn’t make much difference to the overall hum.

I also recently attended the Menin Gate Ceremony in Ypres, where we were treated to a variety of ring tones mid ceremony. The crowd was full of arms extended, holding up phones. Not just disrespectful but also pointless. There are excellent on line videos of the ceremony shot by the Ypres Fire Brigade who conduct it every night. Your shaky footage will not compare and spoils the occasion for others. Can you really not just watch and listen?

This is why I like the Royal Opera House.

If you're not in your own seat when it starts, you miss it until the staff decide you can go in.

No sweets, no food, no drink, no talking, no phones.

You do anything antisocial and you are asked to leave. It's middle aged bliss 🙌🏻

And (top top!!!) if you book a box, a child with ASD can just slip quietly to the floor when they need a break and it bothers nobody.

I save up and take the (older!) children every few months. Good behaviour is expected from them... and the rest of the audience too.

Sorry OP. Regional theatre seems the worst for this, and it's not as if it's cheaper than the west end when everything is counted in.

DrSeuss at school play /nativity / piano recital there is always a wall of mobile phones recording the event - it drives me nuts. As well as being distracting for parents who don’t do it, you just miss the full experience if you’re watching it through a screen. Ugh.