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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

in not wanting to be made to feel like a curmudgeonly old gimmer for asking people to be quiet in the theatre?

28 replies

lovecat · 12/12/2008 09:43

I went to see Hamlet last night.

In a way, I'm actually glad that David Tennant has a bad back and couldn't be in it, because I dread to think what it would have been like otherwise.

We were sitting in an ocean of teenage girls, all done up like they were going to a nightclub - not that there's anything wrong with that, per se - all texting each other along the rows of the theatre, chatting at the tops of their voices, generally being teenagers... didn't bother me whilst the lights were up.

But... the play begins. They are STILL talking and texting despite announcements asking for phones to be switched off and texting and photos not being permitted.

Myself, my friend and the elderly couple next to us all 'SSHHHH!' them. They reduce their volume but are still giggling inanely at the mention of 'cock crow' and 'beaver' (honestly, I felt like I was sitting in an episode of Beavis & Butthead) - then the poor understudy playing Hamlet makes his appearance. OMG.... the chatter! Oh, it's not him. Where is he? Is that him? It looks like him, are you sure? It IS him! (no it wasn't, they had just done his hair very similarly and the part had obviously been directed to suit DT's mannerisms as he did do a very good impersonation of him).

Every time he came on they started laughing and talking. Consequently the beginnings of 3 soliloquies were missed and due to a massed outbreak of 'ewww' during the gravedigger scene, most of 'alas poor Yorick' went by the wayside too.

And the final fight scene had a running commentary of Who's he? Dunno. It's her brother, innit? Why's he fighting him, s'not like he killed her, is it? What's up with that one? Dunno. Why's she dead? What's happening now? He only cut his hand, why's he dead? Who's that? ad infinitum.

On the way out one girl was loudly declaiming about her right to talk to her mates if she wanted (I gather someone had said something to her) and what was their problem etc etc etc...

Much as I applaud any initiative to get young people into the theatre, is it really too much to ask that they have some consideration for others who might actually want to watch the play? Even if they're not aware of the etiquette of theatre-going, surely common manners would indicate that you don't talk and text your way through a performance?

Or am I just a mouldy old gimmer and should I get my zimmer frame booked now?

OP posts:
Original poster
lovecat · 12/12/2008 09:44

Fab show, nonetheless. Edward Bennett was brilliant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart also v. good. Oliver Ford Davies (evil chancellor from Star Wars) stole the show as Polonius.

OP posts:
TheButterflyEffect · 12/12/2008 09:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

sunnygirl1412 · 12/12/2008 09:57

Lovecat - you are being utterly reasonable, as far as I'm concerned. In your position, I think I'd have stormed out of the theatre and complained immediately to the management, and insisted that they came and dealt with these kids at once. And if my children were behaving like that in the theatre, they'd get one warning, and then they'd be leaving!!

Were they there unaccompanied, or was it a school trip of some sort (assuming you could tell, of course)? For what it's worth, I went on school trips to the theatre when I was young (of course, that was the original Globe theatre) and we didn't behave like that. Some of my classmates might not have been perfect, but I don't think they spoiled anyone's enjoyment of the plays.

You are right that it's great to get kids into live theatre, but they need to understand that there is appropriate behaviour, and that what they were doing shows a total lack of respect for the amount of work and effort that the actors were putting into their roles, as well as for the rights of others in the theatre actually to hear what they've paid to hear, rather than inane teenagers, who they could hear far more cheaply on the bus!!

Have you considered contacting the theatre to complain? You might get a refund or something towards new tickets.

If believing this makes us gimmers in need of zimmers, then sign me up for the zimmer club!!

dingdong05 · 12/12/2008 10:00

I don't think your bu. A certain amount of noise is to be excited. Especially a show like Hamlet that'll have a good percentage of school trips.
But, it is not a human right to talk to your friends with no thought about the time and place.
And I would have been friggin furious that my trip to see this show was spoiled by thoughtless feckers, no matter what their age.
Glad you ,liked it nonetheless
Am green with envy though

laweaselmys · 12/12/2008 10:00

It was probably pretty lifelike compared to what the globe was originally like.

However, I would also have been very annoyed - since my hearing is a bit dodgy if there'd been people talking like that I wouldn't have been able to hear anything at all! I would probably have complained to a warden or somebody. I don't know what the globe's policy on how the audience behaves is though.

ScottishMummy · 12/12/2008 10:01

put yer frame back in the cupboard i would have given them sshh and don't get me started stare.infuriating behaviour

edam · 12/12/2008 10:04

YANBU at all. Think I'd have fetched a member of staff during the interval and asked for them to be thrown out, or at least warned they'd have to leave if they couldn't shut the fuck up.

edam · 12/12/2008 10:05

Btw, I get the references to the Globe but this is NOT Elizabethan or Jacobean England and talking/texting are not OK.

Miggsie · 12/12/2008 10:10

It's very rude.

...and it's a bloody pisser for the actors too.
My friend once had this when he was trying to act and after his fisrt exit he went round to the foyer and got FOH to chuck the offenders out.

Dame Edith Evans was the best I think. She was in a play once and some people came in late and started talking really loud so she stopped acting and went to the front of the stage and said to them: "Ecuse me, I can hear every word you are saying, but could you speak up a bit for my co star...he's rather deaf"

Style

Original poster
lovecat · 12/12/2008 10:13

Thank you!

It wasn't at the Globe, it was the Ivor Novello on the Aldwych. I've been a groundling at the Globe where audience participation is part of the show, but this was a 'proper' theatre, iyswim...?

Actually, continually telling myself that it would probably have been like this in Shakespeare's day was the only way that I could prevent myself from bellowing 'SHUT THE F*CK UP!' at them...

It didn't occur to me to complain to the theatre staff , if it happens again (I'm hoping to see a few more RSC productions this year so if they do more 'star' casting it will probably be the case) then I shall definitely consider it.

They didn't appear to be on a school trip, I certainly couldn't see any adults 'in charge' of them.

Glad to know that even if I am a joyless old gimmer I'm in good company!

OP posts:
TeenyTinyTorya · 12/12/2008 10:14

YANBU. It's very annoying. I went to see a play which was a Shakespeare adaptation, and there was a large school trip there as well. They talked constantly and irrelevantly through the whole thing.

As an actor who works in schools a lot, it can be good to hear kids talking and getting involved during a performance, especially as school performances are designed to make them think. At a theatre though, there should be a certain standard of behaviour, and it's off-putting for those on stage.

ScottishMummy · 12/12/2008 10:17

kevin spacey abhors telephones in theatre.wants a telephone free zone

laweaselmys · 12/12/2008 10:21

I reckon at the time somebody in the audience would've yelled at them to shut up and probably started a fight tbh!

PatsyCline · 12/12/2008 10:34

Oh don't, this reminds me of a school trip to see Macbeth twenty five years ago. My friend took in a box of Maltesers and proceeded to pass them round for us to enjoy during the show. It was soooooo noisy. I was mortified and she didn't understand at all why I was so !

YANBU.

Patsy

zenandtheartofbaking · 12/12/2008 10:38

YANBU. It's really, really annoying.

Went to see Rosas performing to Steve Reich.

One piece was very quiet and understated.

The audience talked and talked and talked, all the way through. I think some of them hadn't realised the piece was being performed (grrrrr for moneyed philistines.).

Finally my friend turned around and said: "Please will you shut up? Let's face it, when's the next time you're going to get to hear one hundred synchronised metronomes?"

lalalonglegs · 12/12/2008 11:10

The talking drives me insane but then there's the photography as well: constantly taking crappy, pixelated, blurry pictures of things you're only half-watching in order to text them to your friends to show them what a good time you're having . Just weird.

gizmo · 12/12/2008 15:44

Lovecat, I was there too: were you in the upper circle? TBH, I didn't hear too much of the talking/giggling (apart from a couple of really inappropriately placed sniggers in Ophelia's mad scene) but OMG, the coughing! Place sounded like a ward of consumptives.

And I have the tail end of a flu, so I was desperately struggling with the urge to cough continuously throughout.

In fact, overall I got the impression we weren't the easiest of audiences. But wasn't it good? Ed Bennett was utterly fab, as was pretty much everyone else. It's the only time I've ever really understood Hamlet, too, they did such a good job with the language.

Standing ovations all round, I think. And sorry you had your visit spoiled: we should have joined arms as mumsnet bouncers!

Original poster
lovecat · 12/12/2008 17:15

Hiya Gizmo we were in the Grand circle - the middle one of the 3.

I didn't want to even start on the coughing - but wasn't it horrendous? It really did sound like half the audience was about to expire.

Oh, but it was wonderful - it's my favourite Shakespeare play, I've seen loads of different versions of it, and they did some wonderful things with it - interesting places to end the first half and the final act too, I thought. Loved the set too - I went with a techy friend and he was trying to work out exactly how they'd lit the gun-shattered glass for ages afterwards!

They didn't spoil it (they couldn't do that!), but it p-ed me off a little that they thought it was their right to behave the way they were and that those shushing them were somehow oppressing them!

OP posts:
reindeercantdancethetango · 12/12/2008 17:21

Id have been pissed off too. If you want to talk through it then get it on dvd and watch it at home ffs.

Lauriefairyonthetreeeatscake · 12/12/2008 17:56

I don't give a tossing fuck wank that it's what it would have been like in Shaky's day - if I've paid £60 for a ticket I want to hear it.

ScottishMummy · 13/12/2008 20:58

cycling christ!that is quite an expletive.practically onomatopoeic

Princeonthemove · 13/12/2008 21:02

I have noticed it has also become ok to talk all the way through film trailers too in the cinema. And I mean talk...people can't even whisper. I asked someone to be quiet the other day and she was so affronted. She said 'I'm having a private conversation!'... she also spluttered 'Whatever'...when I suggested she have it before she came into the cinema. Rofl.

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 13/12/2008 21:10

YANBU.

I had this from a man who was old enough to know better in the cinema once and asked him to be quiet. He gave me a right gobful and then proceeded to tell his children that they should never listen to anyone or let anyone tell them what to do.

The more I see of other people the more I dislike them. I think I could easily become agrophobic and just let this laptop be my window to the real world. People just piss me off too much.

janeite · 13/12/2008 21:10

You are really, really not being unreasonable - this is a pet issue of mine. And people texting in the cinema - grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I take a fair few school trips to the theatre. My school is in a very deprived inner-city area and many of the pupils have never been to the theatre before but our pupils would never behave like that: we even took forty Year 9 pupils to see Ibsen's "The Lady From The Sea" and they behaved perfectly.

badgermonkey · 13/12/2008 21:12

I've been on school trips with kids and we do our damnedest to keep them quiet throughout - on one trip, every teacher there was mortfied to see a girl sitting on the front row (of a performance sort of half in the round) put her feet up on part of the set! Boy, did she get a bollocking.

We later got a leter saying how well behaved our students had been, so god only knows what other school parties had been like.