Rude people are the Theatre

[MadeleineMummy]

I hardly ever go out but a friend and I decided to go to the West End to see a sold out version of Macbeth. There was an affluent couple behind us who just talked loudly and heavy petted all through the first half while kicking our seats. It was a small theatre and it was really distracting. I kept on looking back at them but they did not seem to notice. I finally spoke to them and told them I could not hear the actors. The woman then haughtily said with a smile, “Well I won’t speak louder than the actors then”. Then proceeded to talk louder. It was not just them, it seemed as if there was a buzz of talking around the whole theatre.

During the interval, I spoke to an usher and she said she would have a word and she did speak to them twice but it did nothing to dissuade them for speaking. Is it just me or have people lost all sense of decorum and decency? The play was a hot ticket with famous names and I would assume that people who came out would have some appreciation for the theatre and be lovers of Shakespeare but it seems not to be the case. This is the second time this year that I have been to a show and people have talked all the way through.

I really hate going out because most venues seem to have ignorant rude people. I am inclined to stay in more because I know that I will have my night spoiled by horrible people.

Is there anything I can do to step people from behaving so horribly?

It's very common op - very annoying when you've paid a lot for the tickets!

We had a couple sucking at each others faces like a pair of Octopi - luckily they left at the interval and hopefully got a room.

Then there was the people talking to their children all the way through. I know kids will often ask questions but the answer surely is to tell them to shush until the interval.

I can't get over how grown adults don't have manners or know how to behave in the theatre. Every time I go I am astounded! People talking, people in and out to the loo every 5 minutes and don't get me started on late comers! 😡

DD2 and I went to see Heathers The Musical, OK so it's not highbrow but we were looking forward to watching it and we had great seats in the stalls. We noticed that the three seats next to us were empty. They sauntered in 2 songs into the musical (during my favourite bloody song), which was annoying. Anyway, never mind. Got to the interval, we were enjoying the show. Nipped to the toilet, got back and the people weren't there. The show starts back up. They saunter back in again, 2 songs into the second act!!! Are you fucking kidding me?! Arseholes! I hope someone has bought them a watch for Christmas!

Yesterday we went to a showing of Home Alone where the score was played by a live orchestra. The woman behind/above us was filming the film.
It didn’t spoil our enjoyment but you’ve got to wonder what she was going to do with her video🤔

Another one here who’d join the campaign.

I always wonder what the actors are thinking. Especially during something like Macbeth. They must be able to hear them. The arses I mean.

Maybe electrocute the chairs and give people a shock for bad behaviour. Pavlov’s theatregoers ?

Yes exactly! I went to see a concert that we'd paid £100 per ticket for and people left during the main event to get more beers!!

Same with a Dolly Parton concert. People left to get frankfurters while she was on stage. Really odd that people can't wait until after to eat or drink.

Luckily in regional theatre ushers tackle such rude behaviour!

Yanbu I stay in a lot more now because people don’t have manners anymore

They certainly don't! Road rage seems to be off the scale nowadays too.

@AnneElliott

We were in the £170 seats for Genesis and people kept leaving to fetch mass market lager, was so odd. I like a drink but I'm not missing music for it!

They were very rude.

My theory is cheaper seats attract people who are trying something out, or less engaged with whatever it is therefore end up chatting or t3xting their mates whatever they arr doing.
Where as £120 seats are filled with those who are committed, want to see the act and therefore are focused and quiet.

One of the worst examples of bad behaviour involved a family in a box next to us watching ballet. It's one of only two occasions where I've felt moved enough to speak to person responsible. I told them off for ruining the performance. Whether they cared I don't know as they just gaped in surprise.

The seat ousting, I mentioned earlier in the thread, involved the more expensive seats too.

I have sat in the gods (do people still call it that!) on many occasions too and I haven't found behaviour to be any worse, though there's a lot of seats packed in some places.

I'm another who would join a campaign. I wonder if Mumsnet would adopt it as one of their campaigns!

There was an affluent couple behind us who just talked loudly and heavy petted all through the first half while kicking our seats.

I hate that! It puts me right off my McDonald's.

IYKYK

was She a Scottish woman with wild hair? Did people look down on her until she started singing, “I dreamed a dream….”?

The Donman is geographically in the West End but it's not a West End theatre, it's a tiny theatre and although Macbeth is more expensive than most of their productions, the most expensive tickets are £70 and the cheapest are £25. That's less of a disparity than the big West End houses where stalls seats can go for upwards of £150 or even £200.

An avant garde production of Macbeth that the entire audience have to listen to through headphones would normally attract a very different crowd to the big West End musicals, despite starring David Tennant.

We went to see James McAvoy in Macbeth some years ago, he broke character to tell a woman off for videoing.
I do think there should be rules of entrance!

It is a really small theatre, just stalls and a very small balcony. The difference between the cheapest and the most expensive seats are negligible. It is a really hot ticket and tickets were supposedly sold out on the day of release.

I think to get tickets you had to be lucky or have contacts, or perhaps be very rich. I assumed with these odds, only people who really loved the play and the actors wanted to go.

I've stopped going to the cinema now because people just can't behave and there's no point going. If I go to the theatre or to a concert I will actively challenge people acting like dicks. I usually helpfully/sarcastically ask them if the act on stage is disturbing them and would they like me to ask them to shut up?

During the interval, I spoke to an usher and she said she would have a word and she did speak to them twice but it did nothing to dissuade them for speaking.

Did you mean you talked to the usher after the play?

The current Donmar Macbeth with David Tennant doesn't have an interval.

It varies so much. I've been at shows where it's like the zoo. People wandering in and out chatting throughout the entire perfomance guided by torchlight by an usher. Another time a very young snobby couple went absolutely mental at me and my wife settling into our seats with bags and drinks before the show started as they didn't like our settling in arrangements or how we were handling stuff and that we were discussing where to put stuff. We were in access seats and my wife is neurodiverse with a physical disability. The only show where there's been really tight staffing was moulin rouge but that might be because of the dedicated access host who also took control of the accessible toilet

^I don't mean to be snobby about West End musicals/jukebox musicals, but I went to see Dirty Dancing and it was like hen party night in Ibiza or something, just crazy drunkenness and people smuggling in entire pizzas.

Without hopefully sounding too much of a tit, I only really go to the ROH these days and haven't personally encountered any issues yet - cross fingers! I am venturing to Coliseum and Sadler's Wells next year for the first time post-pandemic and have definitely heard reports that the audience doesn't necessarily have the same manners... They apparently allow food in the auditorium though, maybe that makes people feel it's more casual so they can chat and crunch? I really hope it's not too bad as I will struggle, I used to go to plays a lot but am really put off when I hear stuff like this.

I don't want to go to venues that allow food inside at all tbh, I can't understand why people can't manage to go an hour (at most) without eating?! I did go to the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival last year and though bringing a picnic is normal and encouraged, I was a bit irritated with those people who decided crisps would be a good idea - surely it's common courtesy to not eat during the performance itself, or at least eat soft food then and save the noisy stuff for interval?!

Would very strongly support the idea of certain performances being enforced silence with no food or drink in the auditorium - in other words, how the theatre was a decade ago!

^ Some theatres do a thing where if you buy sweets from the bar (like big bags of M&Ms), they'll make you decant them into a cup first so that you're not rustling with the bag during the performance.

Yes I go a lot to the theatre and there’s definitely some poor behaviour lately, it puts me off going. I go to more amateur dramatics locally now as only £10-12, largely better behaved too