Bad Behaviour at a Show

There's nothing quite like the disappointment on a British theatregoer's face when the three-minute bell rings and they remember that they now have to go through the inconvenience of leaving the bar to sit through the show.

Come From Away at the Marlowe last night - fabulous performance yet again... just a shame about the guzzling rustling adults who can't manage under two hours of theatre without shovelling Revels and Skittles down their gullets. Oh, and large amounts of rattling ice in plastic beakers should be banned from all theatres as the aforementioned folk also tried to suck every last drop of liquid from the bottom of their cups.

Also Here and Now at Birmingham.
They did have a preshow announcement about not singing along photography etc. But it seems they need to add just because you know the arm dance moves to the Steps songs doesn't mean you need to do them to every song therefore waving your arms over your head all show.

Also if a song is being sung in a sad context if the "plot" don't whoop along.

People on this thread advocating theatres close down because of bad behaviour and trying to be a business is a hot take I can't take seriously.

The question wasn't about closing down due to bad behaviour, but whether theatres can survive (and would therefore close down) if they don't sell alcohol quite indiscriminately (which happens to lead to bad behaviour at certain shows/venues). It's a longer chain of consequences.

Pubs are subject to licensing laws, in which it's illegal to sell or attempt to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk. The bar person who serves the alcohol is liable for a fine of £80. Compared to even a half-full theatre, pubs have an easier job in managing relatively small numbers of people, all of whom are accessible if things start to get out of hand; once in their row the theatre audience member (amongst hundreds) is usually untouchable.

Theatres have a duty to the welfare of audiences - whether the person who doesn't want to find themselves stuck in a conflict situation, or the one on their way to alcohol related disease. Having known a relatively young person who died of alcohol poisoning I see the damage of alcohol abuse all around us. Dressing it up as a component of a fun night is a British cultural facet theatres don't need to celebrate.

I’ve seen the bars at both the Palace and the Opera House sell full bottles of wine with two glasses to people of questionable drinking age in the interval. I’m not saying theatres should stop selling alcoholic drinks but there are practices that could be adopted to reduce the amount of drunkenness we experience.
1. One drink at a time (no bottles of wine) and maybe limit to bottles instead of pints on draft. 
2. ID checks for younger audience members.
3. Stop this ridiculous thing where ATG+ members only get the discount before 7pm. It encourages people to get there and start necking booze early. 

As it stands it seems like ATG really don’t care about over consumption because it’s all about the money (honey).

This was Row C at Giant last night, drink related - I saw the couple in the Bar beforehand. More drinks at their seats. She left before the interval followed shortly after by him - both returned for the second act again with drinks at their seats. Then both left before the end (during a pivotal moment of stillness on stage), Broken glass on the floor where he'd been sitting (pint glass).

It's just so bloody tiresome.

Other theatres around the world seem to survive without selling litres of wine to every other audience member. It only seems to be a problem in this country. If drinks were perhaps banned from entering the auditorium, besides maybe just bottles of water, there would still be some bar revenue for the venue whilst at the same time limiting the amount that people can consume.

Hmmm.  The direction of travel is all the other way.  I remember the Capstone opening in Liverpool with a very strict 'no food or drink in the auditorium' rule.  It was wonderful for about three months - then it started to be ignored and no attempt made to enforce it.  I don't know if the rule is still in place as within a year of its opening I'd stopped going because, having started with good intentions, it was attracting more disruptive audiences than other local theatres/halls.

Indeed, part of the problem is that theatres are, at best, sending mixed message. Just a few examples:



Almost all theatres have abandoned the mobile phone announcements. Often there’s nothing more than an usher walking round like something out of Brecht holding up a placard with icons of phone and/or camera with a big X through them. A fat lot of use when the people they most need to reach won’t even see it because, ahem, they’re staring at their phones.


In a few theatres patrons are told to switch phones off at the auditorium-door ticket check. But there is never any follow-up. I once said to an usher at the Royal Court (Sloane Sq) that they need to word it ‘switch your phone off. Off, not just ‘silent’ and now, not 30 seconds after curtain up’ - and then go into the auditorium asking people who persisted in toying with their handsets what exactly they thought ‘switch your phone off’ meant. The usher, in a very resigned tone, said she wished they were allowed to do that.


On a related point, the ‘no late admission/no readmission’ stipulation, where it exists, seldom seems to be enforced. At Roots the other week, the poor door staff had to repeat the ‘1 hour 40 minutes, no interval, if you leave there’s no readmission’ mantra every time they checked a ticket. But at least two people (one of whom spent most of his time looking at his phone) left and were allowed back in.


It’s sad, but hardly surprising, that some people get the impression that these rules are not meant to be taken seriously. But it’s increasingly obvious that theatre as we know it is in deep trouble if they carry on like this. What’s often ignored is the fact that mobile phones are designed to draw attention to themselves. Many of them even play a jingle when switched off (I remember being in Theatr Clwyd with my late brother when he realised, ten minutes after curtain up, that he hadn’t switched his off. Being a naturally polite person, he dealt with this by removing the battery!). I also think (as mentioned by someone above) that the reason the worst offenders are often well advanced in years is that many people of my generation insist on having the latest phone but have little idea how the handsets work. I’m convinced that some of them literally don’t know how to switch it off. They’ve been told a 12-year-old can do it so they wait until they can ask a 12-year-old’s help. The theatres need to do something about the situation because people like me – and there are still plenty of us left - who want attention to be focussed on the stage for the duration of the performance will just drift away because what we want is simply not going to be provided if too much accommodation is made for mobile phones.



The problem of serious anti-social behaviour/drunkenness is a rather different matter and I’m afraid I’m going cop out here because it seems largely confined to the kind of shows I wouldn’t usually attend. The only solution I can think of is to adopt a policy of stopping the show and evicting the culprits in ignominy. But that’s very much a nuclear option that’s unlikely to be adopted. I am reminded of a concert at the RFH about 30 years ago. The opening was an austere 12-tone piece and a couple of half-sozzled blokes behind me spent the whole 10 minutes or so audibly commenting on how dull and incomprehensible they found it. People looking daggers at them had no effect but when the piece was over, the man next to me turned round to them and said ‘if I hear a peep out of you for the rest of the concert I’m going to follow you outside and explain to you in non-verbal terms just how much you’ve annoyed everyone' (or words to that effect – well it was a long time ago). Now I don’t recommend this approach but the fact is that the pair sat through the concerto in silence and didn’t return after the interval for the symphony.

My partner is originally from Hungary and finds the UK theatre etiquette atrocious. Over there they strictly enforce nothing in the auditorium. They have longer intervals where food and drink is consumed but then nobody would be allowed to take it in. The theatres still get their additional revenue without ruining the actual performance.

It sounds silly to say but, did it evolve as a habit because of the weather? As a country, the UK has always been somewhat prosperous, but the weather doesn't lend itself especially well to outdoor entertainment. Perhaps alcohol-fuelled socialising became common over the centuries as it was a relatively cheap, simple indoor activity, and it then became ingrained in our culture.