Audience Behaviour

[Don Q Fan]

And I seem to remember some years ago complaining about the Mayflower, Southampton selling either popcorn or very rustly sweets   I don't mind them selling the things (well, I *do* popcorn, because it's nauseating), but for heaven's sake either sell them in something that doesn't rustle, or give the people buying them something to decant them into.  I remember the New Victoria Theatre in Woking used to do pick + mix, which was much better, because there probably weren't any wrappers to unwrap.

Birmingham Hippodrome have tubs there for people to put sweets into, it is much quieter.  I NEVER eat or drink in auditorium, why would I want to?!

[zxDaveM]

The other thing that annoys me at the Wells is their inability to stick to the quoted time schedule.

 

they have a schedule?

[trog]

And I seem to remember some years ago complaining about the Mayflower, Southampton selling either popcorn or very rustly sweets   I don't mind them selling the things (well, I *do* popcorn, because it's nauseating), but for heaven's sake either sell them in something that doesn't rustle, or give the people buying them something to decant them into.  I remember the New Victoria Theatre in Woking used to do pick + mix, which was much better, because there probably weren't any wrappers to unwrap.

Some years ago, on a tour of Symphony Hall here in Brum, we were told they had developed sweets in special no russle wrappers but then they sold them in glass jars - great if they fell off your lap.  I don't know if they still sell them. Like most others, I don't feel the need to eat or drink in the theatre, except for the occasional sip of water to quell a cough.

[Don Q Fan]

Quite, and Halls Soothers cough sweets have quiet wrappers too like a waxy paper so it can be done!

[cavycapers]

Lady in front of me tonight wearing TCP gag!

[Quintus]

Lady in front of me tonight wearing TCP gag!

TCP?? Parfum or just eau de toilette?

Edited April 23, 2016 by Quintus

[cavycapers]

Not sure, a little dab behind both ears

[Balletfanp]

I found myself once at the ROH sitting next to a man wearing the most peculiar aftershave. A very old-fashioned scent that smelt like something my gran would have worn, but with top notes of tom cat :/ . Then a lady on my other side started sucking cherry menthol cough sweets. The mingling smells of each was - not good. Cue shallow breathing on my part for the rest of the performance.

[Dance*is*life]

I do sympathise with someone who needs to cough - I've almost cried with trying not to do so myself on occasion,  but at a recent concert there was an epidemic of coughing whenever there was a particularly quiet section - why couldn't they try and hold it in and wait for the noisy bits or at least try and muffle it????   It was so frustrating - every time there was the most heart rending solo violin section, there was a total outbreak of what sounded like bronchitus.  Stay home if you're so ill!   Grrr.......

[aileen]

No-one seems to carry 'proper' handkerchiefs any more (including me). Putting a handkerchief over your mouth when coughing muffles the sound somewhat.

[jm365]

Most embarrassing moment of my life - sitting near the front in the middle of the row at a concert at King's Place, London, I had an asthma attack and couldn't stop awful coughing.  I tried to get my inhaler out of my handbag, someone from the row behind offered me a cough sweet.  I finally got the inhaler, but of course it doesn't have an instant effect.  If I'd been at the end of a row I would have got out, but I thought I would cause even more upset by trampling over everyone.  Now, I tend to have the inhaler in my hand every time I go to anything.

 

So - although I totally agree about people not holding in a cough - just occasionally it may not be totally within their control.  However, I did go to another concert at the Wigmore Hall that was being broadcast.  Someone came on stage before it started, asking people not to cough if at all possible.  It was astonishing how silent the audience could be!

[alison]

Decades ago now, back in the old Sadler's Wells, I was in the middle of a row in the stalls when I got a *horrendous* coughing fit, and despite every attempt to stifle it I just couldn't, and eventually just had to make a dash for it past everyone and out of the auditorium because it was too disruptive.  *And* it was a BRB bill I'd booked for only once, too   (My belated apologies to anyone reading this who was affected)

[Dance*is*life]

How awful for you both!  I really do appreciate how difficult it can be sometimes, but my concert was Yitzhak Perlman playing the divine Bruch Violin Concerto as part of Zubin Mehta's 80th Birthday celebration concerts.  I had been waiting for the concert in such high anticipation and I got so distracted by the coughing that I couldn't concentrate and enjoy it.  And the tickets were expensive.  A friend of mine was lucky enough to be invited to the rehearsal, where there was no audience - was I jealous!

[Scheherezade]

... every time there was the most heart rending solo violin section, there was a total outbreak of what sounded like bronchitus.  Stay home if you're so ill!   Grrr.......

Could be asthma. I am a sufferer and the under-floor air-con, which sets off coughing in fellow asthmatics around the auditorium, seems to be turned on at the most inappropriate moments. I have to suck frantically on airway-widening pastilles whenever the air-con comes through.

[jm365]

Goodness how interesting, Scheherade.  I had never heard that explanation before, but I have often wondered why I have felt the need to cough in the theatre when, on the whole, I don't outside.

[Coated]

Sadly most asthmatics have plenty of coughing experience, and most of them are pretty good at muffling it reasonably unless it's a quite serious attack. The coughers that drive me mad are the ones that just fold their hands on their lab, open their mouth wide and give it a good old go.

 

My moan is about a standee who decided to do some sort of excercise or walkabout during the mad aria in Lucia. Instead of listening to Damrau, I was treated to stomp-stomp-squeak. Eventually an usher traipsed over as quietly as possible (amazing how loud everything is during quiet singing) to put an end to it.

 

And I love the "don't cough" announcements at the Wigmore Hall. Keeps the casual coughing and throat clearing right down and prevents inexperienced visitors from being lynched. A little while ago I overheard a first timer describing the audience as 'very hard-core'.

[taxi4ballet]

Goodness how interesting, Scheherade.  I had never heard that explanation before, but I have often wondered why I have felt the need to cough in the theatre when, on the whole, I don't outside.

That's funny - I have the same reaction if I ever go to church, I've always put it down to musty old hymn books and pollen from the flower arrangements

[RuthE]

That's funny - I have the same reaction if I ever go to church, I've always put it down to musty old hymn books and pollen from the flower arrangements

 

Speaking as a professional church/choral singer, incense can be dreadful for that!  It can really catch you in the throat.  And invariably, the higher the feast (which usually correlates with quantity and complexity of the music!) the more noxious the chosen incense blend, and the more liberally it's swung around!

 

Also, lilies...

[loveclassics]

On the train this morning, there was a teenager with his phone playing "music" (you know that annoying tinny tsch tsch sound) and his mate across the aisle said something like "That's badass". I was about to hop up and tell him to turn it off, when a large chap stood next to him and started singing "Nessun Dorma" very loudly. I shouted "How, that IS badass". The teenager took the hint

If that large chap is for hire I think he could be on to something!

[Jacqueline]

Speaking as a professional church/choral singer, incense can be dreadful for that!  It can really catch you in the throat.  And invariably, the higher the feast (which usually correlates with quantity and complexity of the music!) the more noxious the chosen incense blend, and the more liberally it's swung around!

 

Also, lilies...

When I was young, our local church was a standard C of E parish set up, garden parties and a generally friendly atmosphere, until the old vicar retired. The new one decided it should all become high church, which resulted in the stripping away of all 'fripperies' and the introduction of incense. And didn't he love chucking it all about. He'd start at the altar and then make his way round all four corners of the building. When he finished, the place looked like a smoke bomb had gone off and all you could hear was people coughing. 

As for the theatre, I was caught once in a sudden coughing fit, of the red faced and unstoppable variety. I don't know why it started but luckily I had a bottle of water with me. I was in the front row of the stalls, very unusually for me, and remember a member of the orchestra catching my eye and giving me a death stare. I felt like saying this is not how I usually carry on!

I do sympathise with people who have genuine breathing problems brought on by atmospherics, dust etc. I was most recently almost smothered by the overpowering aftershave of a young man next to me at Giselle. If he got a giftbox for Christmas, it should have carried advice that you don't have to use all the strong smelling products at the same time. Instant headache for me.

I am all for requests for people to keep coughing to a minimum. A lot of the time, people do just seem to start up for no reason and make no effort whatsoever to disguise/moderate the noise. It has been the ruin of too many performances, the worst I can recall was at The RB Firebird a few years ago. No way was all that coughing necessary or unavoidable. So many people don't think or couldn't care less about how their behaviour may be affecting others. I do like to hear about people/theatres taking a stand and I am no longer afraid to do so myself. I haven't paid good money to listen to the audience coughing,whispering, eating, rustling, you name it. I am probably a 'hardcore' audience member. What used to be called good manners I suppose.

[alison]

Jacqueline, you've just reminded me: I think they burn some incense in Acts I and/or II of Anastasia, so I must try and remember not to get too close to the stage when I book!

Thanks.

[Dance*is*life]

Dust and heavy perfumes set me off sneezing (occasionally 20 + times in a row) and sometimes I start sneezing for no obvious reason at all.  My late mother had it as well, so I suppose I inherited it.  I've had it happen in the car and that is a nightmare - when you sneeze you automatically close your eyes - not a good thing to do when you're driving.  So far it hasn't happened to me in the theatre, but I keep a packet of tissues in my handbag just in case..............

[taxi4ballet]

Dry ice is a bit of a killer as well.

[Anon2]

Dry ice is a bit of a killer as well.

For dancers as well as audience especially if all rehearsals have been without it.

[Jillykins]

Last night stalls circle(a rare treat) behind me Act 1 Winters Tale handbag zip back and forth, rummaging noises, repeat of zips, muttering a, repeat of entire performance. I never knew zips could be so loud, Sounds silly but so distracting.

[Jacqueline]

Last night stalls circle(a rare treat) behind me Act 1 Winters Tale handbag zip back and forth, rummaging noises, repeat of zips, muttering a, repeat of entire performance. I never knew zips could be so loud, Sounds silly but so distracting.

Yes, the sound of a handbag zip going back and forth would be distracting, along with rummaging and muttering. Sometimes even more so if the person is trying to unzip the bag slowly, under the mistaken impression that makes less noise, if they are even considering the noise at all. It makes you want to turn round and say for god's sake, just open the bag, take out what you want, put the bag away and be quiet!!   

[VickyPage]

I was in the Upper Slips for The Winter's Tale and I still got rustlers behind me too. Sounds like the whole auditorium was rustling away!

 

That said, unlike last time I was there, no one talked through the whole performance, so I suppose that was a plus. 

[RuthE]

Yes, the sound of a handbag zip going back and forth would be distracting, along with rummaging and muttering. Sometimes even more so if the person is trying to unzip the bag slowly, under the mistaken impression that makes less noise, if they are even considering the noise at all. It makes you want to turn round and say for god's sake, just open the bag, take out what you want, put the bag away and be quiet!!   

 

Also, why on earth - once the bag is unzipped - don't people just leave it unzipped for the rest of the act so they can get back into it again if necessary without making more noise?

[Jacqueline]

Also, why on earth - once the bag is unzipped - don't people just leave it unzipped for the rest of the act so they can get back into it again if necessary without making more noise?

Good point. But consider the disruption should that bag be dropped and all the contents fall out, roll across the floor, under seats and so on. There would then be a scrabbling to retrieve lost items. I experienced this joy once when somebody behind me dropped their bag during the performance and insisted on crawling around trying to pick everything up. The only item unfound was a glasses case which the woman kept whispering to her companion must be under my seat. I had already felt her hand reaching around under there, brushing against my ankles. During the interval, I did actually look and find the case and gave it back to her. She was extremely rude and snatched it from my hand, saying something like about time too. I just gave her what I thought was an appropriate look back. What can you say to people like that?

Edited April 29, 2016 by Jacqueline

[Indigo]

I thought of this thread & its discussion about coughing the moment I walked into the auditorium at the National Theatre to see Les Blancs, earlier this week. Before the play even started, the air was thick with dust, smoke & incense. The Guardian's four star review describes the play as portraying "revolution so real you can smell it", which I hadn't realised they meant quite so literally!  It's quite an experience & incredibly atmospheric. I did notice lots of the audience around me taking the precaution of getting water bottles & cough sweets ready as soon as they were seated. But strangely I didn't hear any more coughs than usual despite more dust, smoke & incense fumes being created during the play. In fact, there were probably fewer. It was a very intense & gripping play which may have helped, but perhaps there's something to be said for having water & pastilles at the ready from the start 

 

Though I don't think either would have helped the unfortunate person at the ROH later that evening who had the most terrible coughing attack. I think they knew when it started that it was bad as they practically sprinted out the nearest exit & the sounds of their suffering gradually faded as the door closed behind them. I thought it was extremely considerate behaviour & I think they were able to return & enjoy the rest of the performance after the next interval.

[alison]

Though I don't think either would have helped the unfortunate person at the ROH later that evening who had the most terrible coughing attack. I think they knew when it started that it was bad as they practically sprinted out the nearest exit & the sounds of their suffering gradually faded as the door closed behind them. I thought it was extremely considerate behaviour & I think they were able to return & enjoy the rest of the performance after the next interval.

Oh dear. I've had to do that on a number of occasions (most notably the last scene of Acosta's Mayerling debut), so I know how awful it can be

[Fonty]

I wonder if coughing fits are like yawning.  Once one person starts, it sets everybody else off.  The last time I was afflicted was when I went to the cinema to see Giselle.  There were only about 15 of us in the cinema, but one woman started noisily clearing her throat, and suddenly I had this desperate desire to cough!

 

Fortunately, I managed to overcome it, and was so involved in the action I forgot all about it. 

[Jacqueline]

Yawning is definitely addictive, in fact hasn't there been some sort of scientific experiment to prove it? Perhaps theatres could introduce a five minute period before lights down during which the whole audience is invited to cough, sneeze, whisper/talk, finish their crisps, fidget, rummage, rustle for all they are worth, to get it out of their system until the interval.  At the end of this period, a loud buzzer will sound and after that, no further unnecessary noise from the audience permitted. Lights down, music and action. Happy days!