Crisps shouldn’t be allowed in the theatre

[coffeegirl73]

Went to a play tonight - a professional production - tickets weren’t cheap. But for me it was spoilt by people all round me munching from large family size bags of crisps and bags of sweets. I just feel it’s very disrespectful to the performers. It seems mad to me that we can’t go an hour without eating?? They were selling ice cream at the interval which is kinda traditional I guess and most people finishing off their ice cream wouldn’t make noise. The 2nd half was worse- the girl beside me had a large bag of sweets that were individually wrapped and she was constantly unwrapping sweets and offering them to her friends. Was at Stratford there last year and there’s no way you would eat through the performance but this theatre is also pretty well known. Was very annoyed

Yeah it is ridiculous. Actually there was a man with a pack up in a rustly plastic bag at the RSC in Stratford. I remember each Pringle. I complained and was fobbed off. I asked him to stop at the interval and he didn’t but was at least quieter.

Popcorn at theatres is definitely a new thing - I’ve been going to theatre shows for over 30 years and it’s only in the last 5 or so that I’ve been aware of popcorn being eaten. It’s crazy - theatres should stop selling it as people are too fucking self absorbed to realise you don’t scrunch popcorn and munch it all the way through a quiet play.

Your attitude that it makes the play less dull is utterly ridiculous - if you find theatre so dull with out stuffing your face then don’t go and leave it to those of us who enjoy it 🙄.

Me and my son go to the Opera a lot. Just local performances, nothing fancy but it's the same there as well. Noisy, selfish bastards talking and chomping their way through it all. Why can't people wait for the interval? Me and my son have our bag of revels and coffee then. People are so inconsiderate and aren't taught manners anymore, I think.

😂😂😂 you are very bloody rude.

performance and audience shouldn’t feel like a mausoleum. But keep up that attitude that’s why so much theatre can’t get any young people in and is suffering. Their audience continues to harbour people with nasty attitudes such as yourself

We were at our small local theatre (to see Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) which I highly recommend) like all old theatres the seats are very close together and not much room between rows and I was on an aisle very close to the front. The woman behind me felt so close I could feel her breath on my neck and she chomped her way through a bag of crisps for the entire first half. I'm sure the actors could hear her-we were very near the stage.
So rude.

Nice and helpful!!

I went to see something yesterday and there were three kids and two parents behind me. The two parents talked the entite way through the performance and the three kids had individually wrapped bags of sweets that they not only opened loudly but sat fiddling with the bags the entire time. I turned around a couple of times and the parents paid no attention whatsoever so they clearly didn’t care one bit. The lady next to me got so annoyed she went to go and get them plastic cups at the interval and suggested they unwrapped them 😂.

yes it’s a public space but my god if you’re the kind of person who lets this happen just know that everyone hates you as you ruin it for everyone else.

I would be mortified to think I was ruining someone else’s experience that they had paid for but some people couldn’t give a shit

I wouldn't want to spend a lot of money just to listen to people slurp, scrunch and rustle their way through a performance either.

The op isn't being unreasonable, it's just good manners and consideration which a lot of people are lacking in.

any eating should be restricted

It is very annoying. We were at the ballet recently and the rustling was ridiculous. I was with my 6yo and I made sure that the snacks she had were decanted into a Tupperware so no rustling of packets at all.

YANBU. I felt bad eating a bag of particularly crunchy crisps in an open plan office last week, to the point where I'll try to avoid a repeat. Eating them in the theatre is not on.

I think for delicate ears you could just say ears.

I agree OP. Let the venue know how much it spoiled your enjoyment, vote with your feet.

My experience is different. One I visit fairly often allows you to take in the drink you bought during the interval, but in a plastic glass. Local art cinema allows glasses but no-one was eating crisps etc - I don't know if they allow food but I saw none - they have an onsight restaurant though. I can't think why you would want to eat while watching a play but I suppose it gives a sense of authenticity to Shakespeare and friends, since food, drinks, oranges etc were on sale during the original performances! Perhaps we have got a bit precious about theatres? I.e. I have thought about this a bit.)

I went to the theatre last night, not to see a play but it was ‘An evening with…’ with talking and some music by a legendary artist. I was aghast at the rudeness of the audience, who were mostly 60+. Some had obviously been expecting a concert and there were numerous rude women who were just sitting having long, loud conversations with their friends. Rustling bags, ring-pulls popping, texting, phones ringing every two minutes. It was honestly like being in a pub!

It was really difficult to hear the show above the background noise. Forgive me for sounding ageist, but I expected better behaviour from older people (I say that as an older person myself).

Food shouldn't be allowed in the theatre. I once paid a lot of money to see a play at The Globe and a pair of arseholes ate throughout the first half right by my ear.

They then threw the wrappings on the floor, including cans, that blew around for the second half.

Agree totally. If you can't stop stuffing yourself with noisy crisps and sweets at the bloody theatre go back to the cow barn you were born in.
Disgusting behaviour in the theatre.
The cinema is bad enough.

It was an older audience that ruined my Christmas present visit to the theatre. Up and down for drinks and the toilet. But I think generally that some people just don't know how to behave in public anymore.

If I had my way I would ban eating in performances and cinemas altogether

Common complaint.
I know that several friends, and myself, are very slow to pay for tickets to things because increasingly since Covid, people simply do not know how to behave at public venues.
In and out to the loo, drinks, crunching loudly, simply too stressful to be amongst.
No thank you.

I feel exactly the same. I no longer go the cinema as people just can’t behave anymore, same on public transport. Why can’t people go for a couple of hours not eating or talking, or looking at their phone. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Last couple of gigs people seem to be more bothered about being pissed (and I like a drink) and viewing it through their phones.

Hell is other people.

Agree. No food should be the rule during live performances of any sort. Eat beforehand if you’re that hungry.

Oh come on. It’s one thing not being precious about theatres, but yet another paying £50 per ticket for people to be eating sandwiches and salad boxes and drinking beer (and spilling it) all over the auditorium during the performance. It’s not a cafe FFS!

Theatres have carpets and upholstered seats for dampening noise in the auditorium, so food spills and smells are time consuming and expensive to get out. Since the particular theatre I mentioned started allowing beer and other drinks in the auditorium, the entire place has that piss smell of stale beer that clearly can’t be cleaned. That’s why cafes and bars generally have hard flooring and pubs stopped having carpet.

I don’t want to pay £150 to take my daughter and mum to the ballet for a treat, and sit for three hours in a stench of hummus, garlic mayo and stale pissy beer the whole time whilst crunching stale popcorn underfoot. If I wanted to eat my dinner at a performance, I’d watch a DVD. It’s disgusting and really antisocial and the venues shouldn’t do it. What’s wrong with some ice cream or chocolate in the interval? I’ve been going to that theatre since I was a kid and now won’t go again. Really disappointing.

Some people are just inconsiderate and self-absorbed. I don't go to the theatre or cinema any longer for this reason. I don't actually miss it, nothing would get me back there. Sooner or later they'll just be accommodating only this sort of person and they'll be happy as pigs in shit having found their own level and people.

Never mind banning food in theatres , they should ban people! Seriously, I have had it with the talkers, slurpers, phone addicts, people filming/taking photos, pissheads, coke heads, influencers and “ We’re mad us “ singalong types.

Exactly. Clods.

They can’t distinguish between a public performance and their own living room.