Audience Behaviour

[Pas de Quatre]

On the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton's website for ENB booking it says no under 5s will be admitted.  Perhaps other venues could copy this?

[Irmgard]

On the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton's website for ENB booking it says no under 5s will be admitted.  Perhaps other venues could copy this?

This is ENB's policy for all performances in all theatres now, except for the "Family Friendly" performances which allow children under 5 and I think the tickets are free for those children.  Of course, I have never seen a child asked for ID by the front of house staff so I expect some under-fives may get into regular performances!

The first Family Friendly performance I attended was back in 2007 when ENB performed "Giselle" at the Coliseum.  By some stroke of fate, it was the performance danced by Simone Clarke just after she had been "outed" as a member of the BNP.  There were lots of anti-BNP demonstrators outside the theatre and talk of a protest during the actual performance.  Simone's first entrance and pas de deux with Albrecht went off without a hitch but when the corps de ballet reappeared, the protesters stood up and began shouting (obviously hadn't studied the plot and didn't know what Simone looked like!).  Immediately, all the mothers in the Stalls shouted at the protestors to be quiet!  The protestors, who thankfully were sitting at the back of the Stalls and were decidedly nonplussed by this reaction, were then ushered out and the performance continued without any further disturbances - and the dancers didn't miss a step!

Incidentally, Ksenia Ovsyanik's London debut as Aurora was at a Family Friendly performance this January.  There were only a handful of very young children attending but the Stalls was full of school parties.  They were immaculately behaved and enthralled by the performance.  I was sitting behind a row of boys aged around 10 and, when Carabosse came on, they all performed the mime gestures with "her" - obviously they had been involved in one of the many schools' workshops that ENB organises. What also impressed me was that the ushers gave the teachers or escorts a plastic bag before the end of each interval and all the empty ice cream tubs, drinks cartons etc. were collected very efficiently.

With regard to cough sweets, I have used Ricola herbal sweets for over thirty years (including getting people to bring me packets from Europe before they were available in the UK).  They taste like humbugs and are in an almost noiseless paper wrapping so I always have a few ready before a performance starts and I'm never without my trusty plastic bottle of water which I believe all theatres allow these days.  Certainly works for me!

[aileen]

School teachers won't accept the kind of behaviour which is tolerated by some over-indulgent parents. I believe that school parties at the ballet or the theatre are generally made up of children of junior school age ie the children are at least seven years old. At my children's state primary pupils who were troublesome in the classroom could be excluded from school outings for reasons of "health and safety"! I also attended the performance which Irmgard mentioned. There was a fun atmosphere which was only marred by two grown women having an argument in the upper circle.

[MAB]

My sister's step grand daughter was taken to the theatre at too early an age and was frightened by both the dark and the pantomime's villain. Nothing will persuade her to go again even though she is now a lot older.

 

Have to say though I'm fairly tolerant of misbehaving tots that know no better, it's the misbehaving adults I have a problem with.

[Quintus]

Hello all, I'm new here, glad to have come across this forum.   I did have a rather fraught Nutcracker at the Coliseum a couple of years ago. I was pleased to find the two seats next to me empty - sadly the occupants appeared for Act 2 and munched rice crackers all the way through, then got up as soon as the curtain first fell and barged their way out.  Meanwhile, the dear old man behind me was humming along to all the most familiar passages and giving an appreciative running commentary on the costumes and scenery!

Edited June 11, 2013 by Quintus

[alison]

Welcome, Quintus (not a reference to Cambridge Latin, I trust?).  I think you've found the longest thread on the main part of the forum (although it still has a long way to go before it reaches the giddy heights (lengths?) of the one on WhatsOnStage

[LinMM]

I actually prefer going to matinees of Nutcracker in the festive season and all that. It's nice seeing all the little girls twirling their princess dresses and doing the odd ballet steps up and down the aisles in the interval...HOWEVER children eating DURING the performance could get me a tad incensed I must say!! Why do the parents let them do it.....can't they go an hour without sweets etc? I'd need all my strength not to say anything.....to the parents in the interval or at the end....but no doubt the ones who let them do it would just see you as a bit of an old killjoy.

[LinMM]

Quintus were these kids on their own then....no adults with them(you mention only two seats that's why) Another thing I can't understand .....parents not sitting with their kids....someone else had this experience on this thread too.

 

It's a bit like on planes when you have paid your £12 or whatever to choose your seat and then you get asked if you wouldn't mind very kindly moving because a family of three who don't want to be split up haven't reserved there's. I think it should be mandatory on flights for family's with kids under 10 to book the seats together.

So perhaps this should apply to theatres too!!

[Quintus]

No, these weren't kids, they were middle aged women, speaking a Slavic language - suspect they were tourists and were cramming in the ballet to a busy schedule 'doing London'.  I haven't to date had bad experiences with kids.  The best behaved audience on the other hand was in the Linbury studio for Wayne McGregor's Random Dance triple bill last year - not mainstream fare and seemed to attract quite a young audience (I mean young adults, not kids) who were very positive and respectful. That was a nice atmosphere.

[2dancersmum]

Not sitting with the kids in a theatre is something I don't understand either - certainly for pre teens as apart from their behaviour there is the obvious safety issue of not getting out at the same time in the interval or at then end and the child or children wandering off outside or something. Something I saw at the pantomime last Christmas when 2 little girls of about 5 were quite oblivious to the fact that no adult had followed them out of the theatre until they were half way across the dark car park.

 

Planes I do find easier to understand though I don't think anyone should be asked to move to accommodate a family.  Planes with unallocated seating usually let families with children on first in any case.  But seat reservation is an expensive addition as it is per seat and when you are a family of 5, having to travel in school holidays in any case, it soon adds up. 

[Dance*is*life]

I remember taking my two older sons to the ballet at Covent Garden in the 1980's and the younger one kept bothering the woman in front of him (unintentionally of course) .  He was enjoying it and wanted to see better, so he wriggled a bit and his little sticking out legs touched her chair a few times.  She turned round absolutely furious and made remarks about children of that age shouldn't be allowed in to the ballet.  We had come to a matinee, not an evening performance, and had spent a lot of money on tickets.  The whole performance was totally ruined because I had to virtually hold his legs still in case he touched her again and set off more nasty remarks.  I was so embarrassed, but he was actually really well behaved, not talking or really moving about.  I suppose people were less tolerant of children in those days........

Edited June 12, 2013 by Dance*is*life

[LinMM]

It's interesting interpreting your two munchers as being "kids" Quintus ......obviously the behaviour was on the level of untrained children....but also someone else had the experience of children turning up next to them with no adult in tow.

 

Even if these were tourists completely uninterested in Ballet....hardly the way to behave in a theatre.....though perhaps that was a first too!!

 

The plane issue.....yes see your point....very expensive if you have to book each seat separately.....I assumed families might get some sort of reduction. Anyway no longer an issue for me as my partner now refuses to pay to reserve seats in advance.....then you don't get the blood pressure going up!! We agreed to move as it seemed churlish not to everyone going on holiday and so on but were quietly fuming for a while......once we were above the clouds and into the sun all was forgotten anyway! But it is a point though and in theatres you wouldn't pay extra for this.

[Jan McNulty]

I've found adult munchers often more disruptive than child munchers.  I really do not see why people have to munch at all during the performance.  Even in plays with acts of up to 90 minutes it is not too long for someone to do without their munchies!

 

Mind you - there are theatres that encourage munching by selling popcorn!!!!!!  I also dislike the fact that people seem to be able to take drinks into the auditorium in plastic glasses which I find seriously irritating.

 

I exclude people with medical emergencies who may need to eat for example a couple of glucose tablets or people who are trying to calm coughs.

[Quintus]

some very applicable suggestions here from the world of cinema goers!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2010/12/the_moviegoers_code_of_conduct.html

[LinMM]

Alas can't see this on my IPad (flash player issue.....another this timeApple bone of contention) but looks like could be amusing:)

[Legseleven]

LinMM, that was so kind of you to move out of seats you had paid to reserve on a plane - I confess that I suspect I wouldn't have done. Unless of course you were moved to better seats, preferably with an upgrade (!), as well as having your seat reservation fee refunded?

 

I am afraid that my view is that you choose to have a family and therefore it is up to you to ensure that if you choose to take them to the theatre or on a plane, you have the means to ensure that you sit together and, even more importantly, that your children are aware that certain standards of behaviour are required. (Dance*is*life, I don't mean that your son's behaviour didn't fit those standards - he was trying to get the best possible view and the woman who complained should be ashamed of herself - but taking children who are not interested or have not been told how to behave to the theatre spoils the evening for everyone else).

[Jan McNulty]

Quintus, this is superb.  It absolutely applies to theatres as well as cinemas!  Thanks for the link! 

[GTL]

This one wasn't quite intentional rudeness but not very polite in any circumstances and rather unfortunate in this case.

Curtain-down at the last night of a retiring company director's tenure, the posh seats awash with big names and emotion, the audience requested to remain in their seats for a special presentation.  But not the two seated next to the retiring director and her assistant: they barged their way past on their way to the exit (towards the main stairs, not backstage). She looked more than a little surprised as she moved to let them past before they climbed over her. 

It was obvious from their demeanour during the performance that they had no idea who she was, but what a shame those tickets hadn't fallen into more appreciative hands.

[aileen]

I'm not sure whether this has been mentioned before, but at the RAH last night someone was recording parts of the performance (thankfully very briefly) on an i-pad. Apart from that, the audience was very well behaved and very quiet although my husband was quite annoying at the beginning, turning off his phone at the last possible minute and looking around nosily to see what everyone else was doing!

[zxDaveM]

some very applicable suggestions here from the world of cinema goers!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2010/12/the_moviegoers_code_of_conduct.html

 

Think most cinemas these days days, this is almost compulsory behaviour, rather than what you shouldn't do. Which is why I don't go anymore...

[Fonty]

That link did make me laugh, but cinemas themselves are frequently to blame. 

 

They only seem to serve snacks that require huge amounts of noisy crunching.  And many are also in those horrible crackly bags.  And drink sizes should be limited.  If someone drinks what looks like a 3 pint sized drink at the start of a film, they would have to have a bladder the size of a watermelon if they manage to last the entire film without leaving at some point!

 

As far as children in theatres are concerned, I am prepared to be lenient if their annoying behaviour is not deliberate, and not as a result of boredom.  Children are often completely oblivious to the noise or nuisance they are causing, so my first move is always a polite request to the child themself to stop doing whatever it is they are doing.  I may have been lucky, but the adult with them usually sorts it out. 

 

At the ROH, I find the behaviour of the people in the more expensive seats to be much worse than those in the cheaper ones.  Somebody said they were probably Corporates given the seats the free, but I do wonder why these people always end up sitting beside or behind me!

[Quintus]

OK, now we've all stretched and warmed up, here's a much more difficult one......  Last year I took the family to a rare local performance of Swan Lake (usually the only culture we get round our parts is growing on the leftovers at MacDonalds).  It was a pretty poor performance in many ways by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia, but the audience was not critical and was well behaved and enjoying it.  Now the ethical conundrum focuses around one member of the audience, seated on one side near the front, who was suffering from some medical condition that meant he could not control himself from shouting out noises every few minutes, and also breaking into applause.  These shouts/noises were really extremely loud - they carried right across the theatre and they were occasionally actually making the dancers jump and look.  For anybody seated nearby it would have completely ruined the show. He was clearly aware of and visibly embarrassed by this himself, but had chosen to go regardless.  Now, whose rights take priority - those of the individual who through no fault of their own would otherwise not be able to attend an event they enjoy, or those of the majority who have spent a considerable sum to attend what they expected to be a performance in a quiet environment?

[alison]

A question I have frequently wondered about in the past, too.

 

My last bad experience was, I suppose rather more down to usher behaviour rather than audience behaviour, but the other night at ENB's Swan Lake at the RAH members of the audience were being allowed into the auditorium pretty much throughout the first act.  I lost count of the number of people who walked in front of me and blotted out my view.  Several of them were clutching drinks, too, so I'd guess that they'd been in the bar and just decided to wander in late, rather than being genuinely latecomers who'd got delayed, perhaps, by traffic or public transport problems.  I was really surprised - and disappointed that it was allowed at all - it was really disrespectful to those members of the audience who had come in on time.

[Coated]

A question I have frequently wondered about in the past, too.

 ....the other night at ENB's Swan Lake at the RAH members of the audience were being allowed into the auditorium pretty much throughout the first act.  I lost count of the number of people who walked in front of me and blotted out my view.  Several of them were clutching drinks, too, so I'd guess that they'd been in the bar and just decided to wander in late, rather than being genuinely latecomers who'd got delayed....

I always think this kind of behaviour is stronger in people who go to lots of gigs, where it's quite normal to wander in and out to get drinks, even when you're seated. Drove me mad when I went to my last gig at the Hammersmith Apollo - either you sit and have people get up every 5 minutes, or you stand and see a forest of phone at arm's height.

[LinMM]

Quintus another difficult one I think.

 

Presumably the person was suffering from Tourette's? But was otherwise fully functioning mentally.....eg didn't need a carer.

 

At the very least he should have informed the theatre management of his condition so the dancers were prepared for these interruptions to happen during the performance.

 

Not sure about the audience though. Perhaps if he was tobe a regular they could request that he sit towards the back of the theatre rather than at the front which would help a bit and perhaps attend matinees ? But for one off performances it's hard but just have to put up with I think as he does have a right to be there.

For his part if he was a genuine theatre lover and knew he wanted to go alot this condition can be helped by appropriate professionals to a certain extent with certain strategies and hopefully he would try to get some support to help him cope with his condition in the theatre situation.....that would be his responsibility.

Ours would be to try to be tolerant and accept that it's not going to happen very often.

Not sure how people at the ROH would feel though if had happened there and they had paid nearly £100 for seat!! Perhaps in the larger theatre the noises would not have affected so,many people. What do others think?

[Coated]

I have sat next to people with OCD type behaviour, constantly tapping different body parts in a particular order, at times noisily. I find that incredibly distracting, but it's a lot worse for the person having to carry out repetitive behaviour than for me, so I tried to block it out as much as possible and got on with watching the show. I have also sat near to audience members with severe breathing problems ( including an oxygen mask) which were surprisingly noisy.

 

Would I have preferred perfect quiet? Yes, of course, but it's manageable once you set your mind to it. If this happened at all performances, I'd be unlikely to pay for expensive tickets since it takes a lot of of work for me to stay with the performance once I get distracted (I'm the person whose head swivels at every rustling noise, apparently some atavistic part of me needs to check whether there is a sable tooth tiger hiding in the bushes).

 

I don't really know where I stand with this. I can't block out noise, to a degree where I have stopped going to cinemas and avoid musicals, especially the type that is likely to attract hen nights or similar since I'd just end up having a somewhat unpleasant experience.

 

If the occasional performances are attended by people who can't control the noise they create, I can literally 'get over myself' and get on with it. If it were every performance, I'd be buying DVDs and take up knitting.

 

If someone with Tourette's wants to attend a performance, I think they should - I'll just hope sincerely that I won't be attending at the same time too often. I appreciate people who know their behavour is a real distraction to other audience members,and i think their being considerate should not lead to them feeling unable to attend any performances. Apart from the question on whether people with Tourette's should attend (regularly or as an one off), I think it would be brilliant if theatres were to put on the occasional performance for people who would not normally attend because they find it too difficult to deal with the reaction they can get in 'public' performances.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Coated

[jm365]

I believe some theatres have started laying on special 'relaxed performances' for just such audience members. The strange case of the dog in the nighttime, for instance, laid on a performance which had certain modifications for autistic people to feel more comfortable. Maybe this could be extended to ballet performances?

[taxi4ballet]

A question I have frequently wondered about in the past, too.

 

My last bad experience was, I suppose rather more down to usher behaviour rather than audience behaviour, but the other night at ENB's Swan Lake at the RAH members of the audience were being allowed into the auditorium pretty much throughout the first act.  I lost count of the number of people who walked in front of me and blotted out my view.  Several of them were clutching drinks, too, so I'd guess that they'd been in the bar and just decided to wander in late, rather than being genuinely latecomers who'd got delayed, perhaps, by traffic or public transport problems.  I was really surprised - and disappointed that it was allowed at all - it was really disrespectful to those members of the audience who had come in on time.

 

We noticed exactly the same, and even worse:  people getting up and walking out just as the principals came on to take their bow...

[capybara]

Reference Alison's remarks, latecomers seemed even to be allowed in through the doors which the dancers were using for their Act I entrances and exits! And all those drinks....!!!!

 

I think that people start to get up and go at the end in the RAH because it otherwise becomes such a scramble for buses and taxis etc., especially in the midst of all the coach parties.

[chrischris]

I have to admit I have sometimes had to leave during curtain call, but it's either that or sleep rough in London having missed the last train home.

[alison]

Reference Alison's remarks, latecomers seemed even to be allowed in through the doors which the dancers were using for their Act I entrances and exits!

 

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that bit.  I thought there used to be a time when there would be someone outside those doors to make sure the dancers got in unhindered? (not that I made a habit of wandering round the outside of the auditorium during the performance, but I think I did it once, for some reason).

 

Edit: Actually, they were Act III entrances, which was even worse.

[Spax]

I couldn't believe the amount of people being allowed in late at the RAH Saturday night. I was looking forward to Swan Lake and it was ruined with people walking in front of us and 4 ladies chatting next to us and sweets packets rustling!

[Spax]

Put me off going to RAH again

Edited June 25, 2013 by Spax