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Oh, I don't know.  I could see the advantages of having someone to interpret the more complex passages of mime in some of the classics, for example.  And would it be that different from the audio description service already offered at certain venues?

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8 hours ago, alison said:

Oh, I don't know.  I could see the advantages of having someone to interpret the more complex passages of mime in some of the classics, for example.  And would it be that different from the audio description service already offered at certain venues?

Could be useful for some of the more obscure McGregor works!

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I was just in Vienna at the Staatsoper and for the ballet they have screens in front of each seat it is touch screen to navigate it, it listed the cast and gave a bit of other info but once the lights went down they went off. 

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18 hours ago, Coated said:

According to the article, they are likely the first ballet company offering this service. I sincerely hope they are also the last.

 

Before I read the article, I expected something rather different... more like a live comment at ice skating or football („...now, after Ms Nunez has executed her bourrées so poignantly, she’s holding a pose in tendu croisé derrière with arms in third position, awaiting Mr Muntagirov who’s to arrive shortly at upstage right… and yes! There he his! Audience’s darling, and in great form, he lunges into a piquè en arabesque, failli, chassé… and will he risk it, the dreaded double tour en l’air…he prepares… and yes! Yes! There it is, and beautifully landed (please refrain from whooping), oooh what a triumph…”)

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  • 3 weeks later...

had a rather unpleasant experience at The Coliseum last night. After the interval a very tall young woman sat in front of me (it had been vacant) blocking a lot of the centre of the stage. So for the next act I moved one seat back so that I could see. The woman behind me muttered "seriously!!!" which I ignored as I'm not hugely tall and don't lean forwards, so can't imagine I was blocking her view - and she had virtually the whole row to herself anyway. Anyhoo, as the performance resumed, she spent the next 15mins kicking the back of my seat, or forcing her toe through the gap into my back. Several spun around glares and 'excuse me's' only fired her up, so biting my tongue, I studiously ignored her, and she eventually ran out of steam. Do such people have to work on being so horrible, or are they naturally gifted?

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32 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

had a rather unpleasant experience at The Coliseum last night. After the interval a very tall young woman sat in front of me (it had been vacant) blocking a lot of the centre of the stage. So for the next act I moved one seat back so that I could see. The woman behind me muttered "seriously!!!" which I ignored as I'm not hugely tall and don't lean forwards, so can't imagine I was blocking her view - and she had virtually the whole row to herself anyway. Anyhoo, as the performance resumed, she spent the next 15mins kicking the back of my seat, or forcing her toe through the gap into my back. Several spun around glares and 'excuse me's' only fired her up, so biting my tongue, I studiously ignored her, and she eventually ran out of steam. Do such people have to work on being so horrible, or are they naturally gifted?

 

Very restrained of you Dave.  I would have grabbed the offending ankle and cut of it's blood supply until she started behaving like a normal human being again.

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While it's understandable to get annoyed about someone moving into an empty seat right in front of you (I usually try to make sure there's nobody directly behind me when I move), the kicking and prodding, especially for that long, is totally out of order!

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Coming on here reminds me that I was going to complain about the fusillade of coughs - some unstifled - ricocheting around the amphitheatre in Swan Lake at the ROH the other night, especially during the quiet bits, of course.  It really ruined the final act for me.

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On 08/06/2018 at 14:38, alison said:

Coming on here reminds me that I was going to complain about the fusillade of coughs - some unstifled - ricocheting around the amphitheatre in Swan Lake at the ROH the other night, especially during the quiet bits, of course.  It really ruined the final act for me.

 

And mention of coughing and other issues in this article from the Standard:  https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/sandwiches-in-the-stalls-and-coughs-in-the-cinema-hell-is-an-audience-a3860126.html

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Last sitting in the right stalls circle I was next to a man who kept falling asleep - I know I couldn't believe it either 🙄, and would then fall forward which meant I had to lean forward so I could see. On the other side of me someone was tapping along to the music and behind me a woman kept tapping her knee in time to the music.  But I was enjoying Nagdhi's performance so much I didn't let it bug me as it normally would. 😬

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I know cinema audiences are different but.... last night at the Swan Lake screening  – it was busier than your normal ballet showing (a good thing in itself) but with the rudest, most inconsiderate audience I have experienced in a long time. Mostly older people, but showing up late, through the introductory video, well into Act 1 – and not just a couple, lots of them! Then sauntering across the front of the screen and blocking the view, and using the light from their phones to find their seats….people talking, rustling sweets through the really quiet bits, two people either side of us making audible (if appreciative) comments all the way through, and worse, singing along!! Then, at the end of Act 2 and the interval, they put the lights up straightaway and brought in the ice cream cart and plonked it right in the middle in front of the screen whilst Ore and Darcey were talking, and of course everyone got up and started queuing and talking so that you couldn’t see the screen or hear what they were saying!! We were so cross. I actually got up and told the usher that I expected him to move the cart the moment the broadcast started again as I was sick of having people traipsing about in front of me and blocking the view…. He moved it….

 

It annoys me because I go to the cinema screenings as much for the “extra” bits and the interviews and comments as for the performance itself, and a lot of people seem to think it’s fine to talk through them or get up and go out and block the screen. They also put the lights up at the end as soon as the last notes died away – I love to watch the well-deserved applause and curtain calls and last night there was a stampede of people wanting to leave and – again - completely blocking the screen. We moved forward into the front section at that point and had a nice conversation with some like-minded ballet lovers who appreciated the whole thing as it deserved!

 

Next time I will book seats further up, I think, so that at least if people behave as badly they won’t block the screen – but I may also have a word with the Vue staff and point out that putting the lights up whilst there is still activity on the screen is just not on as it encourages the more thoughtless people to start getting up and disturbing those who want to see everything right to the end!

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I had a slightly stressful experience at the ROH on Monday - I was sitting in the amphitheatre, in a non restricted view seat, but being very small my view was almost totally blocked by a very tall woman in front. I sat on an inflatable cushion, which made me about the same height as most other people (and still shorter than my boyfriend) and at the end of the first interval the women behind me complained that I was blocking their view and that the seat cushions are only for children. I explained I couldn’t see otherwise and suggested that they also get a cushion. They went off to complain to the ushers and came back grumbling but didn’t say anything else to me for the rest of the performance. Can anyone advise if I was breaking some sort of code of conduct? I don’t want to deliberately block anyone’s view but I’d paid for a non restricted view seat and I am pretty short....

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1 hour ago, aliceinwoolfland said:

I had a slightly stressful experience at the ROH on Monday - I was sitting in the amphitheatre, in a non restricted view seat, but being very small my view was almost totally blocked by a very tall woman in front. I sat on an inflatable cushion, which made me about the same height as most other people (and still shorter than my boyfriend) and at the end of the first interval the women behind me complained that I was blocking their view and that the seat cushions are only for children. I explained I couldn’t see otherwise and suggested that they also get a cushion. They went off to complain to the ushers and came back grumbling but didn’t say anything else to me for the rest of the performance. Can anyone advise if I was breaking some sort of code of conduct? I don’t want to deliberately block anyone’s view but I’d paid for a non restricted view seat and I am pretty short....

 

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Periscope or https://www.savvyhomemade.com/making-a-periscope-for-kids/ ? 😇

Edited by BristolBillyBob
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On 12/05/2018 at 23:24, ninamargaret said:

Up until the closure for renovations Front Row Stalls was my favourite seat, giving a perfect view, feet and all. I think they  'improved' the rake in the orchestra stalls,so that the front few rows  became lower. I've also been told that the Centrefront row of Stalls Circle can be difficult if people in the back row of Orchestra Stalls are tall.

 

Slightly off-topic, but maybe we could start a thread somewhere for sharing seat recommendations (or warnings) for theatres? I know there are photos for ROH, but it's useful to know when you can/can't see feet in the stalls, or whether you'll have a conductor or violin bows in the way, that kind of thing. I often write a quick note on the back of my ticket, which I keep tucked into the programme, so when I return to a theatre I can check what seats I had and whether past me suggests I book them again. An example is the Millennium Centre in Cardiff. Nearly all the stalls rows have amazing leg room, but there are two that aren't clear from the seating plan that are hideously poor for some reason.

Edited by BristolBillyBob
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That's a good idea BBB. I was just thinking the other day a thread discussing specific theatres would be good. I always struggle to work out how to get the best ticket bargains at the London Coliseum for example. A thread discussing seats, general advice on where to buy tickets for a given theatre, what the loos are like etc would be good.

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3 hours ago, Balletfanp said:

I may also have a word with the Vue staff and point out that putting the lights up whilst there is still activity on the screen is just not on as it encourages the more thoughtless people to start getting up and disturbing those who want to see everything right to the end!

 

Both Vue and Cineworld seem to have told their staff to treat anything which is not the actual performance as if it wasn't happening. Not so long ago,  I asked for the lights to go off during the introduction as there were dancers dancing and the reply was, "They'll go off once it starts."  

 

I think, also, that people are so accustomed to there being 20 minutes or so of adverts before a film that, if they arrive late, it takes them a while to realise that the 'real thing' is already on.

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15 minutes ago, capybara said:

Both Vue and Cineworld seem to have told their staff to treat anything which is not the actual performance as if it wasn't happening. 

 

FWIW I have no complaints about the Odeon screening which I was at: there were no interruptions during the features, nothing was cut short and we had none of the sound or lighting problems others have reported. It was a few quid cheaper than the local Vue screening, too.

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1 hour ago, capybara said:

 

Both Vue and Cineworld seem to have told their staff to treat anything which is not the actual performance as if it wasn't happening. Not so long ago,  I asked for the lights to go off during the introduction as there were dancers dancing and the reply was, "They'll go off once it starts."  

 

 

Of course the answer to that is that the ticket states it starts at 1915, so regardless of what is actually on the screen at that time it should be lights off....unless of course there has been an announced delay as the pianist has been indisposed and if she doesn’t turn up in the next thirty minutes the piano parts will be replaced by a harp

Edited by Rob S
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4 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

FWIW I have no complaints about the Odeon screening which I was at: there were no interruptions during the features, nothing was cut short and we had none of the sound or lighting problems others have reported. It was a few quid cheaper than the local Vue screening, too.

 

I had a similar positive experience at my local Odeon last night too.

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20 minutes ago, Fiz said:

Jan, you said how much it cost you  at your local Odeon. Ours cost £22.50 each. It’s gone up over £7.00 since we first started going!

 

I ended up just turning up last night and it was 50p less than booking on line!

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My Picturehouse is very good, no problems. 

 

Last night I could have done without the ( elderly)  lady 2 seats down though....'Isn't he lovely! she kept saying very audibly about several of the male dancers, and  'Oooh isn't THAT one lovely!' or 'Oh yes, he's good isn't he? ' 'No he's the best! He's lovely' etc etc

It would have been amusing but I rather wanted to  be transported to enjoy the loveliness for myself...

 

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I have no complaints about the young man standing next to me at the RB Swan Lake on Monday evening, even though he did give out a great whistle of approval for Yasmine Naghdi which made my hearing aid buzz, but only a little. He gave me a personal tuition on how to release hold when you feel that arabesque is secure.Thanks, Brandon  😊

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