Annoying audience members in the theatre

[beverleybass]

Does anybody else ALWAYS seem to have seats right by the worst people in the theatre. I must just be unlucky.

This year saw Come From Away and was directly behind 3 women who kept chatting all the way through, including during really emotional and key moments and solos. Someone tapped them on the shoulder and told them to shush in the end which improved things slightly.

I also saw Cinderella and more chatters as well phones coming out constantly with their shining lights.

What is the point spending all that money on tickets to look at your phone or chat to people??

Anyway saw Mamma Mia as a birthday treat today and it was honestly the worst of the lot. People on my row playing musical chairs, people arriving up to fifteen mins late (and still being let in) the man to the left of me kept singing along with the songs, the people in front chatting and constantly zipping/unzipping bags and rustling noisy bags of snacks.

How hard is it to sit still and be quiet

Sorry but I completely disagree with no eating at the cinema. Snacking while watching a movie has always been a part of it. Popcorn was created for sitting watching a movie

In the US, yes, and sadly this is a part of their culture we've adopted. That said, I don't mind me or other people eating during the trailers and adverts.

When I first started going to the local cinema (not a multiplex) in the 1980s we didn't have snacks during the film, but could get sweets, popcorn and ice-cream in the 15 minute intermission. I think this should be re-introduced, especially for long films!

Frozen is terrible for this (the show- the bits you get to see and enjoy is incredible but I still wouldn't recommend it)

First issue...the evening performance starts at 7pm which Yes is slightly earlier than the standard 7:30 start time but my GOD, the amount of people who can't read a ticket is astounding. One or two people you can get away with but they let in groups of 20-30 people at a time for about 40 minutes and don't bother telling them to be quiet so they all come in mid performance chattering away.

Next...when i go with my family (6 of us) we make a vague decision of who sits where BEFORE we go in and go in in that order. The amount of people who then (despite coming in 20 minutes late) insist on playing musical chairs and swapping everyone around meaning everyone else behind can't see.

Then it was just none stop talking from the people in front. And if she wasn't talking she was warbling along to the songs (I didn't know it was possible to be a mix of of key, out of tune and out of time but she managed it) . Sorry..I've paid £95 each to hear Sam Barks belt Let it go... please shush.

And the other thing (especially with the Disney shows) the stage songs are different to the film so she wasn't even getting the words right half the time.

And yes we did complain at the interval (as did many others) and no the ushers did nothing more than shrug. and yes I did email afterwards. Took them almost a month to respond with a "you should've raised it, people have paid we can't turn them away" I love the theatre but the experience completely put me off booking the Disney Shows ever again

It's so much worse since the pandemic - people have legitimately forgotten how to behave.

@DottyHarmer

I doubt if this friend is looking at her watch to see if she’s going to miss the last train. It’ll be an Apple Watch and she’ll be checking news/social media/tweets etc. dh has one and I swear that we’ve nearly come to blows over it (he would never use it in the theatre/cinema, though).

These are not watches you glance at to tell the time. There is much exaggerated twisting of elbow movement and raising up to see it.

Gosh, this has got legs!

It wasn't an Apple Watch. It was a few years ago and I don't think Apple Watches were out then, and if they were, friend wouldn't have had one.

I didn't notice any exaggerated movements or lights. Clearly that has opened me up to all sorts of accusations based on my level of intelligence.

I honestly cannot abide shouting in public though.

@CognitiveDissolver

Thats so strict. I will desist from going to the cinema with a friend who might look at their watch in future.

My friend isn't from the UK, so perhaps she missed the memo about how rigid the rules are here.

I'm often disturbed by people rustling, accidentally kicking the back of my chair, squeezing past late to their seats, laughing loudly and so on but I just take it as part and parcel of being in a public place.

I do admit that I really hate shouting in public though. I absolutely loathe it when people feel that they have no other way to make their point known other than to shout and that they are so self- important that they think its justified.

Again, you're using the idea of a 'public place' very loosely (as I think you probably do understand; you're presumably doing it deliberately to try to bolster your argument), not in the sense in which a cinema is a public place.

You're totally within your rights to ask people to stop rustling or kicking the back of my chair (sometimes yes it's 'accidental', but if it's a kid and/or it goes on and on...!) rather than being a martyr to it.

And I don't shout.

@LittleGwyneth

It's so much worse since the pandemic - people have legitimately forgotten how to behave.

It may seem like that but, no, lots of people didn't know how to behave before Covid. Maybe more people behave like dicks now for some reason, but there were plenty of selfish, inconsiderate pillocks long before covid. Perhaps we notice them more after months of not doing anything, and forgetting how annoying other people can be.

DameHelena I'm so glad you don't shout. I think I live in a particularly shouty area, because I've witnessed a lot of shouters recently (I wasn't involved!) and its in my head because of this!

I tolerate a level of human movement in cinemas. Its never been so bad or deliberate that I wanted to hector people publicly. I find that watching the film which I've come to see keeps me occupied and that I don't have to adopt a role of cinema-police, constantly on the look out for faint lights or similar to clamp down upon.

And yes, cinema - goers are technically invitees under rule and the cinema is subject to an Entertainment License but if it had come down to an informal ad hoc hearing there and then I would have requested that the shouter be removed at the same time as my lighter-friend, because she was far more disruptive to a larger number of people and for a much longer period of time.

It makes me cross when the ushers don’t intervene to get people off their phones. Why don’t they?

It sound like ushers need to be replacing with bouncers and proper security detail the way people are carrying on. Ushers aren't taken seriously and in many cases will just be working a few hours for minimum wage rather than trained security.

Thank you all for the confidence, I've now emailed the theatre because I think there is definately responsibility on their park.

There's no way 4 drunk women should have been given 3 bottles of wine, the ushers should have also spotted that the row got up 8 times, and been more careful about letting that back in randomly, especially to get the row up a 9th and 10th time after they had been ejected

user1497207191 well no, not all the way through obviously....... but just for a line or two in one song I guess I was thinking.

Im almost silent through all theatre type productions fwiw.

Btw have a word with yourself, "have a word withyourself" is a pretty rude thing to say Just like being annoying through a theatre production is rude.

Well I was looking forward to going to see The Sound of Music with DD but I'm a bit apprehensive now. I haven't been to the theatre for years apart from to see school performances that DD has been involved in.

One of the last times I went was to the Sage in Gateshead and the staff were pretty hot on people using phones.

Gigs as well, as others have said.

Near the front of a gig last month. Big, loud, drunk bloke near us (30+) singing along badly, shouting his love to the band, having a whale of a time and letting everyone around him know it. A man in front of him (50+) gently said he'd paid to hear the band sing, not him. Big bloke was seething, told the man to shut the fuck up and ended up trying to pick a fight with him. Then at the end of the gig (like an hour later, so he was clearly stewing over this), the bloke leaned in aggressively and told the man in the front row that he should have stayed at home if he couldn't handle listening to live music with other people around.

Alcohol is the problem.

@CognitiveDissolver

DameHelena I'm so glad you don't shout. I think I live in a particularly shouty area, because I've witnessed a lot of shouters recently (I wasn't involved!) and its in my head because of this!

I tolerate a level of human movement in cinemas. Its never been so bad or deliberate that I wanted to hector people publicly. I find that watching the film which I've come to see keeps me occupied and that I don't have to adopt a role of cinema-police, constantly on the look out for faint lights or similar to clamp down upon.

And yes, cinema - goers are technically invitees under rule and the cinema is subject to an Entertainment License but if it had come down to an informal ad hoc hearing there and then I would have requested that the shouter be removed at the same time as my lighter-friend, because she was far more disruptive to a larger number of people and for a much longer period of time.

I don't think it's 'hectoring people publicly' to ask quietly that they turn off their device/stop talking. It's basic courtesy. And I find that people using lights (they're not 'faint' in a dark room) distracts me from watching the film I've come to see. As do a lot of other people, going by the ads and signs and generally (clearly not universally) understood etiquette around them.

Ultimately, until or unless someone like you or your friend is decent enough to stop flashing lights or talking during a film, I don't care at all about your opinion on the matter.

"Sorry but I completely disagree with no eating at the cinema. Snacking while watching a movie has always been a part of it. Popcorn was created for sitting watching a movie"
But do you have to eat constantly for the whole film ?? Recent Bond film was 2 hours 45mins long, the amount of people constantly munching through the whole film was unreal, fine with popcorn at the beginning of the film especially when the theme song drowns out the film . I don't know how any one can eat constantly all through the film

DameHelena I don't think it's 'hectoring people publicly' to ask quietly that they turn off their device/stop talking. It's basic courtesy

You had to be there. There was nothing courteous about it. I almost jumped out my seat.

Ultimately, until or unless someone like you or your friend is decent enough to stop flashing lights or talking during a film, I don't care at all about your opinion on the matter.

Where did this talking suddenly spring up from? Neither me or my friend said a single word and I only spoke out at the end of the film to say I did'nt appreciate someone shouting during it. You've just made that up, haven't you? What is your motivation here? Have you been reprimanded for shouting at people or something? Has someone stood up to you and are you reliving it through this thread?

I want to watch films peacefully too and not miss the dialogue in a scene because someone is shouting.

@CognitiveDissolver you are avoiding the issue which is plain and simply that your friend was in the wrong.

It is a certain age 40 ish huns, some were crawling , so drunk.

I know precisely the sort of drunk you mean. I find groups of women in their 40s to be pretty obnoxious when drunk.

For all of those slating school kids though, I was at a performance of Back to the Future and the group of schoolgirls (a mixture of ages, seemed to be 10-14ish) were impeccably behaved.

You sound like an absolute joy!

Maybe more people behave like dicks now for some reason, but there were plenty of selfish, inconsiderate pillocks long before covid. Perhaps we notice them more after months of not doing anything, and forgetting how annoying other people can be.

Inconsiderate behaviour has been an ongoing trend for years. Social media/smartphones/trash TV have been a bigger catalyst than Covid.

I do think the pandemic has affected my tolerance levels now though. I've just got no time for arseholes whatsoever, when previously I might have brushed it off.

@VenezuelaChant

Gigs as well, as others have said.

Near the front of a gig last month. Big, loud, drunk bloke near us (30+) singing along badly, shouting his love to the band, having a whale of a time and letting everyone around him know it. A man in front of him (50+) gently said he'd paid to hear the band sing, not him. Big bloke was seething, told the man to shut the fuck up and ended up trying to pick a fight with him. Then at the end of the gig (like an hour later, so he was clearly stewing over this), the bloke leaned in aggressively and told the man in the front row that he should have stayed at home if he couldn't handle listening to live music with other people around.

Alcohol is the problem.

In the environment of gigs/live music/football matches etc, it's drugs as well as alcohol.

Bad behaviour at theatre is a combination of alcohol, bad manners, poor self awareness and a lack of empathy. The problem is, alcohol tends to bring out those other things and in the UK getting plastered has become a religion.

There was an article in the Guardian about this recently. TBH i think the answer is to have separate performances - noise allowed and absolute silence required. And phones never ever on.

The English National Opera does "relaxed performances":

Relaxed performances are for everyone, and they may particularly benefit those who might normally find it challenging to access theatre. This might include anyone with dementia, learning disabilities, an autistic spectrum condition, Tourette’s syndrome, sensory disorders, anxiety, bladder and bowel conditions, and those with young children or babies.

@User135644

It makes me cross when the ushers don’t intervene to get people off their phones. Why don’t they?

It sound like ushers need to be replacing with bouncers and proper security detail the way people are carrying on. Ushers aren't taken seriously and in many cases will just be working a few hours for minimum wage rather than trained security.

At my local theatre ushers are volunteers. But there are also paid security staff.

Absolutely is this and thr tupe of show. The problem you have is something like Mama Mia exists as it is easy to watch, has catchy familiar songs and people attend to enjoy those things in an easy going environment. They aren't productions you need to focus on or have complex pros so the majority audience attend to be part of that. This behaviour is extremely unusual in more complex plays.

I think this true. I’m not massively I to musicals, I tend to only go to the theatre for plays and the worst thing that happens is that a tall person sits in front of me and I can’t see!

Bad behaviour at theatre is a combination of alcohol, bad manners, poor self awareness and a lack of empathy. The problem is, alcohol tends to bring out those other things and in the UK getting plastered has become a religion.

To be fair, it's also why they had to bring in restrictions on Zoo Nights and London Zoo.

More generally there used to be lots of open days or scratch events for team paddlesports that ended up being cancelled because so many people turned up drunk for them that it was causing rows because they weren't allowed on the water and the insurers wouldn't provide coverage for anybody rescuing anyone who went in the water.

I live in the US and attend theatre performances regularly, both as an audience member and as an usher. I don't recognize the type of behavior that is being discussed here, and I wonder if it's a particularly British thing.

Some points from my experience.

The use of mobile phones is not allowed during almost all performances. Ushers will ask people to stop using them if they see it happening and are in a position to make the request.(Not so easy if the person is in the middle of the row admittedly.) If patrons don't comply with ushers requests, security will be called and in the worst case scenario that person will be removed from the theatre. Again, though, this is something that I very rarely see. Almost always as soon as the house lights go down for the show to start, all mobile phones go dark.

It isn't the theatre's decision on when patrons should be allowed in and when they should be held outside after the show is started. It is the individual production's decision, and they communicate this to the ushers. Sometimes guests can be seated at any point, sometimes only at certain points which will be less disruptive to the audience, and sometimes only at the intermission.

I have never seen whole bottles of wine being sold to be taken inside the theatre! The theatre I work at has bars, but only individual drinks are sold. They are only open before the show and during the intermission. If someone leaves the house to get a drink during the show they will be very disappointed!

Ever since the theatre reopened during Covid and until just this week, masks were required, so no food or drink was allowed inside the theatre anyway. Ushers also had to police mask wearing, involving security if necessary, but there were very few instances of non-compliance that I saw.

Maybe there are some theatres that use staff as ushers. Not mine. The ushers are all volunteers.