Actor stopped because of emailer in audience

[ChangeNameLikeIChangeSocks]

I just read about this in the guardian, I'll put a picture of the heading of the article.

He says he "thought" the audience member was sending emails on his laptop. I wonder how he knew that, presumably he couldn't see the screen, and signal in theatres is dreadful. I would take a punt that he was in fact playing minesweeper.

I'm going off topic. The reason I wanted to post this is because it leapt out as me as a parallel to typical behaviour in many of the (Good!) schools I've taught in. Low level disruption. Except it's not one audience (class) member, it's most of them.

So I had to smile wryly to myself that this made the national news.

Either the audience member had very good reason, or this is a natural follow on from the deterioration of respect and good behaviour in schools.

Oh actors, come teach the dear children!

I do this in school if children are talking - "everyone, let's just wait while we wait for John and Jenny to finish their conversation. It must be very urgent and important to have carried on during the lesson..." then everyone looks expectantly at them to find out what was so urgent and important.

Audience behaviour has deteriorated souch post-covid, it has nothing to do with children in schools and everything to do with grown adults forgetting how to behave in public. Talking, recording, singing along, heckling all seem to be the norm now and it's awful. Good on Andrew Scott for calling it out.

I don’t blame him. Using a laptop (or any device!) in a theatre is unhinged behaviour. Poor behaviour in theatres and cinemas etc is becoming more common, it’s satisfying to see it called out.

Surely some people on devices in meetings (not in the theatre!) are taking notes?

I once dropped a bottle of water mid performance in Stratford- awful clatter - whole cast stopped, looked over at general direction of me, held a breath and glare then continued.

I was mortified!

I had this on a date once. Bloke tapping away on his phone, looked up at me to see my face with an expression like a bulldog licking piss off a thistle.

’Sorry, it’s an emergency!’
’Oh dear. How bad? Is she bleeding? Or on fire?’

It was ‘a work thing.’ He didn’t do it again 😀

I do this in school if children are talking - "everyone, let's just wait while we wait for John and Jenny to finish their conversation. It must be very urgent and important to have carried on during the lesson..." then everyone looks expectantly at them to find out what was so urgent and important.

I absolutely hate this approach. It's so patronising & humiliating.

Of course you are right to expect them to stop talking - so just ask them, firmly.

I have on occasion had to ask students to stop talking. Adults, as university students, so different. I simply explain it's distracting and ask them to stop. They almost always do. There's simply no need to use a sarcastic / humiliating approach, regardless of their age.

Why do some people bother going to shows if they can't pay attention to them?

Not everyone wants to be there but may be dragged by family or SO. If I’m at a thing I’m not interested in I’ll listen to a podcast or something but wouldn’t get a laptop out

I go to a gym with a spa and there are so many people who take phones into the sauna and spa pool. Why? Also in yoga classes, and although they are told to turn them off this seems just wrong with the ethos of yoga. I see their watches flashing with messages too. In some ways it makes me feel old but in others I feel "progress" isn't always a good thing!

Listening to a podcast in a theatre would be so profoundly disrespectful. Surely as an adult if you absolutely can’t sit through three hours of a show you can insist on not going? Surely the person who has ‘dragged’ you there is so mortified by you listening to a podcast they’d rather you weren’t there either?

You can’t blame this kind of rude behaviour on someone ‘making’ you go. You are an adult - say no! Or if you want to please the person inviting you, put up with actually watching something for the short time it lasts!

This person was working, not note taking.

I’d honestly far rather go to a performance on my own than go with someone so totally uninterested they were listening to a podcast.

love Stratford. Took the eldest 2 to a performance of Macbeth. They each had a bottle of something fizzy as we'd just eaten a quick meal deal by the river beforehand. As we were showing our tickets the staff member told the kids to undo the caps before heading to our seats to "release the pressure" so it didn't disturb the performance. Now every time we go back now we laugh about it. But she did have a point and was really lovely about it.

Have the guts to say you’re not going. That’s disgracefully disrespectful.

Me too. I would literally never do any activity again with someone who behaved like this!

I would argue that what Andrew Scott had to do each night was entirely different to what a teacher does. He was quite right to stop the performance. Fancy booking a ticket to the theatre then taking out your laptop. Crazy!

Exactly.

Listen to a podcast in a theatre? Why not just wait for your mates in the bar and listen there?

Good for him. Incredibly disrespectful to sit on your laptop during a live theatre performance. Fuck off home instead.

I remember going to see Damien Rice in concert (would've been 2007 I think), and there seemed to be a larger than usual number of people arriving late - and he was headlining, not even the support act. It was seated so very disruptive.

A song or two in, he actually ended up stopping and was like "You know what, I hate to disrupt you all arriving, so I'll just pop off and you let me know when you're done..." and left the stage 😂😂 He got a big cheer from the majority of the crowd.

I’ve been reminded of a work colleague who was at a party - his ILs’ golden wedding or something - in a hotel. He was bored and went to the hotel reception and asked to borrow a PC where he typed off a memo and faxed it off ( this was a long time ago) to his subordinate. The following morning no one could believe he’d actually done this at a party.

Yes, and at school or college. Or they may be looking up a reference on Wikipedia or buying a book the teacher just mentioned. But you’re right. There is no reason whatsoever to take a laptop out in a theatre. The person who did that was making a statement and Scott should not have had to stop the show - the ushers should have kicked the laptop fucker out.

I went to see Ed Byrne a couple of weeks ago (who was brilliant!), someone's text alert went off twice - he let it go the first time, then really laid into them - called them selfish fuckers! Got a huge cheer from the rest of us.
Once can be a mistake but twice is bloody rude.

I was in a rage at a Blind Boys of Alabama concert when the guy next to me would not stop texting. The blinking light from the phone and notification sounds disrupted my pleasure at listening to the music. Initially waited for him to stop and when he didn’t, I finally broke and spoke to him. He tried to say he wasn’t doing anything wrong but then did leave. Presumably to keep texting.

Vast swathes of humanity have lost an ability to focus/engage thanks to
technology that’s been deliberately designed to distract us. All those dopamine hits we get from our phones etc. It’s the technology that is fostering the uncivil behaviour. I have truly come to believe that between social media and technology, it is the end of civilisation as we know it.

This particular class respond better to this approach than the asking firmly approach, asking firmly will get you a blank look followed by a repeat of the behaviour a few minutes later when they "forget". They also respond well to laughing at themselves as a means of dealing with low-level disruption.

Good on Andrew.

It’s disgraceful behaviour.

Totally inconsiderate to the people around him as well as disrespectful to the cast.

Amazed that anyone thinks this is okay…
And as if anyone wants to be second-hand listening to your shitty podcast as the sound leaks through your crappy AirPods while you blithely stare into middle distance dismissing the notion it affects anyone 🤨