Phones at the theatre

[SecondStarOnTheRight]

When there's multiple signs at the theatre and an announcement prior to a show starting, why do people leave their phones switched on and on loud?

Five times yesterday, including after an interval, someone's phone rang duringa performance. A couple of times it was someone close to where we sat meaning we couldn't quite hear the dialogue well. It was a small theatre so one phone rings and everyone can hear it.

Its a few hours. Why is it so hard?

That’s even worse than noise in the cinema.

I think the announcement should include a warning that if anyone’s phone makes a noise, the play will be paused & that person will be asked to leave.

I really do think there should be more consequences than just everyone around them tutting! I feel for the actors though, it must be so distracting.

People have been asked to leave at my local theatre! Also annoying is people filming (also removed from theatre) or just on their phones as the light is distracting. Turn it off for the first half, check it at the interval if you must then turn it off for the second half

In the Inside No.9 stage show, there’s a brilliant opening sequence about this and general theatre etiquette (not a spoiler, it’s in all synopses).

No phones went off there, that’s for sure.

I went to see Frozen in London with my daughter, so very expensive as you can imagine. The woman next to me answered her phone and had a conversation twice and then gave her daughter her phone to play games on during the performance. A member of staff spoke to her but she should have been escorted out IMO.

I think it says it all about where we are as a society that when you go to these places all you see when you leave is floods of people immediately turning on their phones desperate to catch up on whatever they've missed for the three hours their phone has been off.

There's no discussing the show or play, just hordes of people's faces lit up with a light glow from the screen.

I hate it when they ask no filming , and you sit behind someone waving their phone about filming away .
They act like you've committed doing something terrible to them if you ask that they don't do it as it's so distracting.

Last time I was in a small theatre, three women were whispering to each other behind me. They looked astonished when I looked round & whispered to them to please stop, but they did.

If someone directly next to or in front of behind does that, especially filming, I do tell them. I teach teens so I'm not scared to "confront" poor behaviour in a setting like a theatre. I'm polite but ""teacher voice" stern. It does usually work. Same for people leaning far forward in steeply raked seats where doing so obstructs the view. We have to get better at this as a society if we want anything to change. I completely get why people don't say anything on public transport to large groups or situations where you may feel vulnerable but a theatre I think is ok. What I never understand on these threads is that 100% of posts condemn it but we all see it all the time. I'd love someone one day to post defending it!

I never use my phone during a show, but I hate turning it off as it takes too long to start up again, and I like to check it quickly during the interval. It's always on silent and DND though, which should be enough.

I do like to take a little theatre selfie with my dcs before the show starts though, and I'll take photos and videos during family friendly shows where they've explicitly said it's allowed (they are usually keen on the free advertising by SM, though I never share publicly).

I’m genuinely considering never going to the theatre again after the deterioration in other audience members behaviour. People seem to think they’re at home on the sofa, not part of a temporary community.
I took DD to a children performance last week. You do expect a certain amount of getting up to talk little ones to the loo etc and that’s fine. What’s not fine is the amount of people entering late and then giving their little ones huge bags of snacks in noisy packaging. The performance only lasted an hour. Surely children can last 60 mins without food?
We have snacks before the performance or in the interval so we don’t bother anyone and concentrate on the show. I naively thought that was the etiquette.

Theatre intervals are 20 mins. It takes less than 30 secs to switch a phone on. What’s so important about you that you need to feverishly check it in the interval anyway, are you Alan Sugar?

It makes no difference to anyone whether it is on silent or off. And surely you can imagine lots of reasons why someone may want to check their phone at the interval, other than being Alan Sugar. E.g. Kids at home, ill relatives, making arrangements with their lift home, asked to work a short notice shift from work, waiting for important news from a friend. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as it's not during the performance.

Yeah use your phone as you please as like you say don't know if someone needs to make arrangements etc... just not during the performance.

Its like in snooker too, the referree is constantly telling people to turn off their phones and yet there's still ringing during the game!

I think having phones on airplane mode during performances is reasonable. Easy to check during breaks and people are less likely to be distracted by light from screens.

When I babysat for neighbours in the 1980s, though, they always left me the number of where they were going in case of emergencies and I suppose if I had had to phone a theatre or restaurant to say little Jenny was waiting for an ambulance or little Frankie had set the house on fire, they’d have put an announcement out.

If someone absolutely has to keep an eye on their phone all the time in case they need to leave, then they ought to be at the back in a side seat to minimise disruption for everyone else.

They should be told to leave.

I'd be hear all day talking about people's bad manners. My worst experience was going to see a play and the woman next to me had bought a selection of vegetables and dips. I have misphonia so you can imagine my rage as she crunches away next to me.

It gets worse, behind me a woman had bought some take out in a plastic container so she was rustling away behind me. I turned around a couple of times so she stopped eating during the interval then carried on afterwards.

Another time someone was texting throughout a performance. I made a complaint and was moved after the interval.

Drives me up the wall.

Were you at the same show as me yesterday or is it just that it’s everywhere now? It was so annoying and as you say when it’s a small theatre everyone hears it.

My phone goes onto silent and do not disturb which is more than enough nowadays.

The audience we were in yesterday definitely had a bunch of rude people though. One of my friends uses a walking stick and she had people kicking it as she was trying to walk and people asking her to hurry up.

I also of course ended up with a tall man right in front of me so I could only see half the stage but that’s more my general theatre luck than bad manners at least.

'In the Inside No.9 stage show, there’s a brilliant opening sequence about this and general theatre etiquette (not a spoiler, it’s in all synopses).'

It's brilliant, and should be shown before every stage show and cinema screening for every more! 😁

They need to bring in those pouches that Broadway has been using. Make them compulsory, only exceptions being critically important disability apps like for diabetics etc.

I went to a matinee last week (average age of audiences is 60+) so I’m absolutely sick of people actually looking at their phones and typing text messages AFTER the performance has started. Couldn’t believe it, the phones are so bright everyone can see it.
i tutted eventually so she put it away. 2 people had their phones out in my row alone !

Im always surprised on threads like this at the number of people who say something to the offender and the offender just stops. In my experience you either get ignored or told to fuck off

Agree, and it would give a lot of people a lot of joy as well.

I've seen Dave Gorman confiscate a phone. He gave a warning at the start. It was about 10 years ago so I have a feeling you couldn't do that now.

When we left, we saw the man (whose phone he took) furiously arguing with the security guard. But there was a big cheer when his phone was confiscated.

I think we might be at the point where the only answer is a signal blocker. But I don't know how that might affect any other equipment that's being used in a show. Maybe somebody more technical than me will know the answer to that.

Based on you struggling to see I'd think possibly not as theres a good view regardless but I was at Hull Truck? I reckon it's just a general attitude though. At a big theatre you wouldn't notice it so much but there's not many seats in Truck. I prefer the small theatres other than that though!

We had a couple of people trying to get passed us when I was sat next to someone with a stick and not feeling like we got chance to sort ourselves. But mainly it was just the phone issue.

Nope we’re up in Scotland so was just a whole load of rude people in theatres yesterday then!

We were watching Dial M for Murder which is a really wordy play so people with phones and rustling going on were really quite distracting for both us and the actors.

I didn’t even get to see the murder scene because of tall man though. It’s a good thing I knew the story I guess because I knew what everyone was gasping at when it happened. 🙈