Audience Annoyances

I was at the Bristol Hippodrome last night seeing a most enjoyable show … but the audience … wow.

I sat next to an ex-minor-celebrity; His partner asked the woman in front to move as she was “too tall” and so she had no option but to sit in front of my wife who then had to move to an empty seat further down the row. He and his partner commented out loud on the performances, left during the finale and his phone rang during the second half. Mind you, his was only one of four phones to ring in the second half of this particular show!

A man just across the aisle decided to charge something in the second half so we had 4 bright white leds flashing continuously.

A woman in the stalls decided that the characters on stage needed the benefit of her advice and was calling out “encouragement” as well as shouting how she’d like to kiss the lead.

The two children in front whispered continuously through the show, sprawled all over the place, stood up for ages, played with their binoculars including seeing if they could balance them in their heads and were basically bored … I’m all for children getting exposure to theatre, the more the merrier. But if you are going to make a point of saying to them that they “get just one chance to behave themselves” it may be best not to ignore their behaviour – better still, take them to shows they want to see, enthuse and inspire them with theatre rather than making them think its boring.

Apart from that, and being unable to get a vanilla tub as they’d run out, it was a very pleasant night ….

Categories: Audiences, Theatres

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