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?

Absolute cunts

I'd be equally annoyed with the theatre. If you've reported a problem and they've not addressed it (in this case by insisting they leave) then you should reasonably be able to get your money back.

I've experienced very little of this, although we saw the Stereophonics last year and were surrounded by people filming the whole gig on their phones, so you end up watching the band through someone else's screen.
I find quite often at gigs especially standing, that the people at the front are more interested/into the band so are better behaved, while people nearer the back are more likely to be at the bar/distracted.

What about haughtily? 😂

I agree, people are really inconsiderate I find that at the cinema now too. Unfortunately the ushers (even though they shouldn't need to) probably need to be more firm otherwise people should ask for their money back. Same goes for late people too being disruptive

😂😂😂😂

Recent article about the decline in theatre behaviour...

news.sky.com/story/fights-vomiting-and-abuse-theatregoers-have-forgotten-how-to-behave-staff-say-13026111

Puts me off going now. I used to really enjoy it but don't fancy paying £££ to have to sit near someone behaving like a dickhead and ruining it.

Most impressed at how you clocked the Louboutin shoes and Rolex and Breitling watches.

YANBU. Behaviour since Covid has got awful, it really puts me off the theatre. People are so used to being in their own houses. Theatres shouldn’t sell noisy snacks for a start. I now try and go only midweek as quieter and more hardcore theatre fans

But you need to sit in your allocated seats? At least at first until the film has started. Because how would you know which seats would be taken? The people in them may not have arrived yet.
I've booked tickets in an empty cinema before. To arrive and have people sat right behind me or in front of me. So they clearly chose seats directly behind/ in front of the only 2 other people in the cinema. They normally then proceed to talk/ bang the chair/eat etc. So I move once the film has started. I'm the one not happy so I'm the one to move. If the short person is not happy they are the one to move.
If a tall person books first and a short person sits behind them why would the tall person move?
Obviously it's weird to book tickets directly in front of 2 of the only/ few people already booked. So whether they are tall or short or planning to talk their way through it it's annoying and they obviously don't care. So those types of people will not move. So the unhappy person behind needs to be the one to move.

I don't agree the children should have been allowed to disrupt the screening, but it seems strange to decide you are 'not the target audience' on the basis of a screening of The Little Mermaid, which is a children's film. Most cinemas show plenty of films that are not aimed at children.

Worth asking for a refund given them not be asked to leave, no harm in trying. You'll know the seat reference of the people concerned.

Don’t go and see Adele then. She famously defends this and tells off security guards who try to get people sitting down and not singing

They let you out and in again during a performance, thats unusual

Who is the actor who stopped acting to tell someone to switch their phone off?

To be fair, etiquette for a gig is very different to going to see a theatre show.
Musicals,, unless the actors instigate it , you dont singalong until the encore , it's perfectly normal to sing a long at a gig

What did the fact she was in her 60s have to do with anything?

I don't know. There was a thread recently about going to concerts and a large amount of people said you shouldn't sing/ stand or dance at all during any concert. I am not one of them. I think it depends on the artist. I could not imagine going to a take that concert and sitting there not singing or dancing (unless in the gods at a venue like the 02. I understand why standing up there is problematic)

People have no manners in general now. I work in a theatre and had to attend to a man in the balcony who had been punched in the back of his head because he had the audacity to be too tall. None of the drunken slobs behind him owned up to it, so I kicked them all out. They tried calling to complain the next day, wanting free tickets. They were told they were banned for life. (None of the credit cards they used will be able to purchase a ticket from here.)

I went to see a Gilbert and Sullivan opera at the Colloseum and this very old man got told off by usher for having his phone on! He was very upset and said that he didnt have his sound on. I had to explain to him that the lights from his phone could be seen all around the theatre and it was disturbing for others. He just hadnt realised.

We went to see Backstairs Billy in the West End a couple of weeks ago. Audience were fine actually, no one seemed to be drunk. But I have been to a comedy gig where there was a really loved up couple next to us and it was annoying.

I think it might have been Michael Sheen.

Are you sure you weren't at a swimming pool in the 1970's OP. You lost me at heavy petting 🤣

A concert is different to theatre!

I went to see Billie Eilish and the girl behind us was screaming every word to every song. That's acceptable! But if I went to see Les Mis and someone behind was murdering I Dreamed a Dream whilst I was trying to listen to the woman actually playing Fantine, I'm afraid they'd cop an unfortunate one. That's just not cool.

The problem is this particular production doesn't have an interval, so there would have been no way for the OP to address it with ushers, or for the ushers to talk to the offenders, during the performance.

The Donmar Macbeth is also "headphone theatre" where each member of the audience wears binaural headphones throughout the whole play, which are directly linked to the actors' radio mics so the dialogue and sound effects comes directly into one or both ears ( to give the impression that the actors are whispering into your ear or that certain things are happening in 3D sound).

The characters of the witches actually don't appear on stage at all, all their dialogue is purely through the headphones.

OP, can you clarify whether you had your headphones on and the couple were so loud you could hear them over the headphones, or if you took your headphones off for some reason? I wonder if the 'hum' was actually from the headphones, and not people speaking.