Why would you text at the theatre?

[Sausagenbacon]

Unless you're an idiot?
Rosamund Pike calls out audience member for texting during show

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0723zgdp0eo

Given how many posters there are here, there must be those who think it's reasonable behaviour to text or film during performances.

We watched RP in this play (Inter Alia) and it's an incredibly intense experience. I just can't understand the mentality of someone who would pull out their phone and text during a performance.

Were they actually texting though or possibly using the phone to turn their hearing aid up? My friend’s elderly mother got roundly told off by the usher when she got out her phone to adjust her hearing aid volume at the ballet.

If you can’t possibly be parted from your phone for a couple of hours then do everyone around you a favour and don’t go to the theatre FFS. No one is forcing you.

How dare anyone take their eyes off me the fabulous Rosamund Pike for one second.

Do you also text while driving

You don’t need to turn your phone off. I barely turn my phone off once a year. You just put it on silent 🤨

How would I know an annoying thing is annoying? I mean, Rosamund Pike explained exactly what she was bothered by so we know that! She expressed it eloquently and articulately. Just like other actors have also spoken about audience members using phones and laptops being incredibly rude and distracting.

And I know audience members are annoyed by phone lights because when I've been in a theatre or cinema and someone has used their phone it has been annoying to me and to other people who ask them to put it away! The point of the lights going down is to create focus on the stage or screen. Someone shining a light in the seats detracts from that.

Far more disruptive to step outside.

And those are not emergencies. Those are everyday scenarios.

Texting when driving is illegal and dangerous.

you can hardly liken causing a car accident go pissing some people off in the theatre

You can still stay off your phone until the interval. If you can't, don't go to the theatre.

You don’t know what annoyed people watching the performance referenced in the article, obviously.

Absolutely! Phones are medical devices to Type 1 diabetics. In a theatre setting they have to decide between muting the potentially lifesaving alerts (that would without a doubt annoy everyone in the theatre both on stage and off) or they check their phone every now and then.

My husband has Type 1 and my 6 yr old son does too. The 6 yr old adds another reason to check phones as whilst he’s being looked after by a trusted family member his care decisions ultimately rest with us. We try to be incredibly discreet on the rare occasion we do leave him, screen brightness turned to minimum etc. But should we really never go to the theatre because one of us has a chronic illness and we are caring for a child with a chronic illness?

Turn sound off, have light low and cup hand around it, holding it low. But not everyone is equally free to switch off.

I mean if I was RP I would feel the same TBF

If the acting is good enough, nobody should notice. Let alone have the entire performance spoilt.

I am amazed to find some people can live with such absolute leisure.

I know someone who monitors their child's blood sugar levels via their phone and needs to remind them to take their insulin. They don't really have the opportunity to be 'off' fully. I've also had situations at my previous work where I've been contacted over serious quite literally life and death situations . It was part of my job and it unfortunately made it very difficult for me to be fully "off". I've also taken vulnerable people to the theatre to give them the experience of it and they've struggled to understand why they can't use their phone during a performance. In that respect I actually think the theatre can be quite inaccessible because the attitude is that its more important for people to be immersed in the performance than it is for vulnerable people to have the chance to be there. And I don't really like that attitude.

Obv some people are just rude but I do think others have legitimate issues and I'd find it more disruptive were someone to get up and leave at a key moment than check a phone silently.

I think there can be a little more grace for people's circumstances tbh.

The article literally has quotes from audience members explaining what annoyed them about the person being on their phone. And I have expanded on that to talk more generally about what is annoying about phone usage in theatres and cinemas. It's hardly a mystery.

No because phones should be off or at least silent and away in your bag/pocket so you don’t know you have a message in the first place. You can check it at the interval/end

The light on the screen is visible and distracting to people behind/around you.

Say hi to a fellow mumsnetter if you see me doing this. Challenge me to a duel if you feel like. Or we could share some hazelnuts.

It is unlikely you will see me as there are discreet ways to check a phone.

That would be way more disruptive than just using your phone quietly. I’d much prefer the person sat next to me to be texting than up and down getting past me.

I mean, that's just not true?! Why are you blaming the actors for the appalling behaviour of the audience?

It's quite obvious the folk on here who think nothing of getting their precious phone out during a performance and texting/scrolling because They Are So More Important Than Everyone Else

There are usually relaxed performances available so that people with additional needs can go. Maybe there should also be separate performances for people unable to switch off their phones for an hour at a time.

It literally kills the actors when my phone swerves

Could it be that we've touched a nerve of The Theatre Texters, who don't like to be reminded that their behaviour is ignorant and selfish...

I bet they also listen to reels with the sound on in public places and carry out long conversations on loudspeaker in otherwise quiet train carriages.

@Lavender14

but why should one persons need trump another’s? If you are taking a group of vulnerable people to the theatre (and I’ve done this) you prep them in advance, you explain the rules including phone turned off and not speaking until the interval but you can laugh at jokes at whatever that’s specific to what you are seeing, explain you can’t sing along to Les Miserables (happened to my parents, they had to call over the usher are it was terrible warbling and ruined the first two scenes) or whatever anyway - it’s a teaching opportunity.

it’s possible to discreetly check your phone in very specific circumstances but in a theatre with 800 people I suspect the ones with critical reasons to use their phones are minimal - we managed before phones!