Audience Behaviour

[Sim]

Ha ha yes, like Cinderalla's coach turning back into a pumpkin at midnight!! 

[Colman]

More like the bit where the fluffy things turn into Gremlins at midnight …

[capybara]

A new one on me at the Coli this week - a man sitting sideways (with his bottom borrowing some of my space) and leaning towards the stage in such a way as to impair the view of the people behind him. It seems that we are losing our spatial awareness these days.

[Coated]

The dreaded singalong is spreading from musicals to restaurants now. Having a quick bite before tonight's Giselle, I was treated to the dulcet tones of a middle-aged 80s pop fan. *Le Sigh*

 

Hope this doesn't spread to opera...Carmen has a few well known tunes, innit?

[LinMM]

I don't mind people taking piccies at the end or people leaving quickly if need be....except ...if they get their hats and coats on stand up as if to leave but then stand there another few minutes clapping and blocking your view of the stage ....once people have stood up just get moving along or sit down again please!!

[Melody]

On ‎8‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 10:51, MAB said:

 

Hang on, if I answer truthfully that my fave is Fonteyn I'm barred?  Where's the fairness in that?

I was thinking the same thing. I'm amazed at the number of people who claim to like ballet but have never heard of her.

[Blossom]

On 19/01/2018 at 16:07, Darlex said:

Sorry to hear that, Blossom. I just thought yesterday that I would like to go and see that... now I'm not so sure!

 

Definitely go and see it! Grace Maloney is a wonderful new talent. Jennifer Saunders is a comic genius - as is Oscar Wilde. 

[Lenore]

Was going to post this with my thoughts on the ENB Jeune Homme/La Sylphide bill, but figured it’d be more appropriate here. 

 

I’m really beginning to dislike the London Coliseum as a venue. I’ve been quite a few times and all but once have sat at the Balcony level (the only other place I’ve sat was Upper Circle). Almost every time I’ve been distracted by people talking or whispering, or as the case was on Saturday with the couple who jumped in the seats in front of me; giggling and whispering. They also kept kissing (so kept missing chunks of the performance & then in hushed voices kept trying to figure out what was going on 🙄. Thankfully they moved several seats along after the first interval so they could space out their rucksack & coats). I did manage to block most of it out but did get drawn out of the drama on stage a few times by the whispering. 

Also during the same performance someone nearby kept impatiently tapping their shoes during La Sylphide, although thankfully they stopped after a while & didn’t restart. 

 

Maybe I’m being a bit petty & a bit grumpy but I find it so distracting and annoying. And always at the Coliseum! Does anyone else find this venue is particularly bad for it or am I just unlucky?

 

 Anyway, rant over :-)

 

 

[serenade]

I think we might have been sitting near the same whispery couple!  What's worse...a constant steady quiet whispering or the occasional really loud comment?  I can't even decide.

 

The matinee for Song/La Sylphide I was sitting near some people who had trouble following the plot of La Sylphide and kept trying to help each other out (at random moments) but were just talking in their normal speaking voices  do they think we can't hear them?  Then on the Saturday for Jeune/La Sylphide, it was whisper whisper whisper.  It drives me nuts.  Is it really so hard to shut your trap for a bit  

 

 I don't think it's petty at all as you're looking forward to being swept away to ballet world and instead you know, you're listening to the people behind you. 

 

I don't know if it's is any worse than anywhere else.  I do have a real soft spot for the Coliseum though...I just love it. So I mustn't have found it particularly bad generally, for the talking I mean.

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, Lenore said:

Maybe I’m being a bit petty & a bit grumpy but I find it so distracting and annoying. And always at the Coliseum! Does anyone else find this venue is particularly bad for it or am I just unlucky?

 

 Anyway, rant over :-)

 

 

 

When I was there for Song/Sylphide there was a couple in front of me who kept canoodling during the performance - heads coming together and snuggling for a while and then moving apart. Since the seats don't seem to be staggered I found it almost impossible to find a good view, and every time they moved I had to move. I'm glad they were so fond of each other; but it was blooming inconvenient.

 

I don't like the Coliseum at all as a venue - uncomfortable seats, poor leg room if you choose wrongly, railing in the way of many rows (in the balcony), staff who don't seem engaged, etc. Much of the balcony also seems a lot further from the stage than the side of the amphi at the ROH. However I've seen many wonderful performances at the Coliseum so it can't be helped.

[aileen]

I don't know if I'm getting more tolerant in middle age but I find audiences - even those at the Coliseum - to be pretty quiet generally. I found them almost silent in ENB's recent programmes at the Coliseum. The one exception was a Nutcracker performance in December. There was a mother with two girls, who were not tiny tots, and one of the girls was squirming around almost from the minute it started. She seemed to be wanting her mother's attention (possibly in competition with her sister) and she really was very distracting. Whilst I try to be pretty tolerant of children at family fare such as The Nutcracker, particularly at matinee performances, I was a bit annoyed. I don't think that I have ever encountered a child who was so disengaged at The Nutcracker before. You get young children asking questions or commenting out loud on what they are seeing and sometimes they get a bit fidgety after a while but this particular child stood out for her total lack of interest and concentration from the get-go.

 

As for the Coliseum staff, they are very variable. Some are good and others come across as bored and uninterested. I'd be interested to know ENO's hiring practices. One gets the impression that there is a high turnover of temporary staff. There could be a better selection of food / snacks (the ice creams are nice). I'm not keen on the refurbishment of the circle bar. I preferred it when it was darker and more 'period'; I find it too bright now with that white shiny flooring. I think that the stalls bar area has also been redecorated recently. I seem to remember it being more glamorous before; now it just looks a bit ordinary. In general, I don't think that the Coliseum management has quite grasped the idea that when many (most) people visit this particular venue for a performance they are coming for a special night (or afternoon) out and that the whole experience is important. Rude or miserable programme sellers, sour milk (yes, this once happened to me and they could not offer me a fresh cup of coffee because they had run out of milk) and toilets lacking provisions don't cut it. Some fresh flowers would help as well. Nobody seems to think of the little touches which create the ambience of a special venue.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, bridiem said:

I don't like the Coliseum at all as a venue - uncomfortable seats, poor leg room if you choose wrongly, railing in the way of many rows (in the balcony), staff who don't seem engaged, etc. Much of the balcony also seems a lot further from the stage than the side of the amphi at the ROH. However I've seen many wonderful performances at the Coliseum so it can't be helped.

Neither did Diaghilev. You're in good company!

[Guest]

Mobile phone going off in the ROH stalls circle during Concerto pas de deux. (BRB Roberts/Singleton). Need I say any more?!

 

[alison]

1 hour ago, aileen said:

There could be a better selection of food / snacks (the ice creams are nice).

 

They're also expensive, at 1/3 more than the Royal Opera House and Sadler's Wells charge for them!  I know ENO have financial problems, but quite frankly the prices are now so high that I think twice, and even thrice, before buying one - not to mention the uninspiring selection of flavours, of which the ROH is also guilty.  OTOH, I rarely pass up the chance to have an ice cream at Sadler's precisely because they do have such a good range of flavours (all of them?).  (This all probably not helped by the fact that when I was young Criterion - being a local company - were the cheap 'n' nasty ice creams they sold down the local park.  Things have changed a bit since then )

[LinMM]

Ive never (so far) had too much of a problem with audience behaviour at the Coli to be honest and only ever drink water or buy the occasional ice cream at any theatre these days. 

For me of the "ballet and dance" type theatres the worst has been Sadlers Wells where there is far too much food and drink brought into the auditorium in my view ......although the theatre staff there seem to be very good at least. It's a good theatre for mostly having a good view of the stage etc ....though I won't go these days unless I can get an end of row seat because of the far too long rows there but in recent years have found it noisier generally than say the ROH or Coli 

[RuthE]

3 hours ago, LinMM said:

For me of the "ballet and dance" type theatres the worst has been Sadlers Wells where there is far too much food and drink brought into the auditorium in my view ......although the theatre staff there seem to be very good at least. It's a good theatre for mostly having a good view of the stage etc ....though I won't go these days unless I can get an end of row seat because of the far too long rows there but in recent years have found it noisier generally than say the ROH or Coli 

 

They could at least not sell food in noisy packaging.  It's the one thing that stops me going to SW more often, as I just hate the constant crackling and rustling.  They also don't seem to make any effort to enforce non-use of mobile phones (though this feels like deja vu, as I'm sure I've mentioned this on this thread before).

[alison]

I can't say that I remember being aware of "constant crackling and rustling" at Sadler's - if asked, I'd have said you get that more at the ROH and Coliseum (certainly at the Coli over the past couple of weeks).  Perhaps it depends where you sit/stand - I imagine there's probably less of it in Stalls Circle than in the amphi.

[buflesse]

When watching the Nutcracker at the ROH I was sitting in front of two parents and their four year old daughter who kept loudly asking questions and making comments. Given that the performance is recommended age 5+ I was a bit surprised they took her. Then they brought ice cream into the auditorium and she spilled it on the seat!

[capybara]

4 hours ago, buflesse said:

When watching the Nutcracker at the ROH I was sitting in front of two parents and their four year old daughter who kept loudly asking questions and making comments. Given that the performance is recommended age 5+ I was a bit surprised they took her. Then they brought ice cream into the auditorium and she spilled it on the seat!

 

But I went to a 'family friendly' ENB matinee of The Nutcracker and you could have heard a pin drop. Downstairs, the lower lobby and spaces for entertaining were filled to the brim with prams and buggies but, in the theatre itself, the atmosphere was amazing.

[LinMM]

In years past I have taken up to ten primary age children at a time to ballet and theatre and they were always well behaved.

i think this was because as much as possible they knew what was going on as we had worked on the story etc beforehand and they knew the rule about sweets ......they gave them to me and got them back in the interval and then back to me again and that was it!! No exceptions. When I was on my own with them I sat right in the middle so never too far away from anybody in the group. 

 

Once though, having spent some time on the story of Giselle and especially practiced the bit where the veil is removed from Giselle as a wili ( and she hops round really fast) ....how they loved doing this bit....we were at the Coli when the second Act started and one of the children said in a bit too loud a voice....psst Miss ....it's them...it's the willies! 

[ninamargaret]

Not ballet, but some years ago the RSC put on a play called Tales from Ovid. In one scene  two handsome young actors appeared wearing just very skimpy tops. I was at a performance where there were several very well behaved girls with their teachers.The girls got a bit giggly and I heard one teacher say to her colleague ' I think the girls enjoyed that'!

 

 

[Coated]

Two woman in their early twenties were discussing shows they had seen previously before the start of a show at the Barbican. One of them holds forth on how audiences at Sadlers Wells are usually so cool and, like, super enthusiastic, really engaged and totally showing their appreciation for the performers. But recently she saw something by ENB, and OMG, how amazing those artist were, how incredibly skilled, but of course the audience for that type of dance is all British, middle-aged and upperclass - someone even told her off for enjoying herself!!!

 

No prize for guessing who was munching through a bag of crisps all through the performance.

 

Feeling a little petty, I couldn't resist checking how she was showing her appreciation at the end of the show. Never seen such a limp-wristed impersonation of a clap on someone who is totally into showing appreciation for performers and super excited for this super cool show.

Edited January 27, 2018 by Coated

[capybara]

5 hours ago, Coated said:

But recently she saw something by ENB, and OMG, how amazing those artist were, how incredibly skilled, but of course the audience for that type of dance is all British, middle-aged and upperclass - someone even told her off for enjoying herself!!!

 

I went to many ENB shows at the Coli this month and the audiences were totally mixed in every respect and extremely enthusiastic. I think that it is the environment rather than the clientele which gives the alternative impression. Put the same bunch of people into Sadlers Wells and the woman you overheard could well be describing them as 'cool' too.

[bridiem]

6 hours ago, Coated said:

Two woman in their early twenties were discussing shows they had seen previously before the start of a show at the Barbican. One of them holds forth on how audiences at Sadlers Wells are usually so cool and, like, super enthusiastic, really engaged and totally showing their appreciation for the performers. But recently she saw something by ENB, and OMG, how amazing those artist were, how incredibly skilled, but of course the audience for that type of dance is all British, middle-aged and upperclass - someone even told her off for enjoying herself!!!

 

There is often a lot of whooping at SW, but not so much in my experience for more tradtional classical ballet - maybe they don't offer so many cheap/free tickets to local young people for traditional work. The whooping at more modern programmes (including ones by ENB) tends to be indiscriminate, and so appears to be the expression of pleasure at a night out etc. Which is OK but difficult to take seriously in terms of the impact of a performance.

 

And without wishing to open a can of worms, it's interesting that someone should feel able to openly be disparaging about people for being 'British, middle-aged and upperclass'.

[Alice Shortcake]

I absolutely loathe the whooping that passes for applause at theatres nowadays. Twenty years ago or so we associated behaviour like this with the audiences of down-market American TV shows - now it's everywhere, like the meaningless use of the word "like" three times in every sentence.

[toursenlair]

10 ways to be the worst theatregoer you can be:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/10-ways-to-attend-a-play-as-the-worst-theatergoer-you-can-be/2018/02/01/36f0ef20-fbbb-11e7-b832-8c26844b74fb_story.html?mc_cid=0abedd2b8d&mc_eid=c2e02122f6&utm_term=.114e50eab0ef

[Jan McNulty]

Thanks Katherine - I think that article has distilled 65 pages of this thread into a single page of newsprint!

[Kate_N]

Thank you for that - it's hilarious!

 

But too true - at  recent Broadway musical in its last week before touring - my companion and I both had to put our hands over phone screens either side of us. The owners of the phones were texting or googling at the start of each half, even though each time the show started straight into the action.  We were in the "cheap" seats (my friend had house freebies as he knew the director) but even these cost around $US70 each. Not money to waste by playing on your phone during the opening number.

[ninamargaret]

Another way to be the,world's worst theatre goer.  Last week I saw Twelfth Night in Stratford. Yes, it's a comedy, and even has farcical moments in it.  But the lady next to me found every other word hilarious and came out with squealing laughter at whoops of delight at every opportunity. I was exhausted by the end of the evening.

[Jam Dancer]

On 27/01/2018 at 11:09, Coated said:

But recently she saw something by ENB, and OMG, how amazing those artist were, how incredibly skilled, but of course the audience for that type of dance is all British, middle-aged and upperclass - someone even told her off for enjoying herself!!!

 

Eek! I’m sure that’s what one young lady probably thought of me recently during the interval of a recent triple bill at ROH and this wasn’t even during the performance.

 

She’d been sitting on the floor on the amphitheater level (around the corner past the Left entrance ), something I often do, and was about to leave the empty crisps bag and fizzy drink bottle on the floor. I am not sure what came over me but before I could stop myself, I pointed out that there were several bins about and there was no need to leave litter lying around.  Well it looks could kill, I might have been mortally wounded. She did, however,  pick them up begrudgingly and put them in the bin.

 

 Growing up, my parents told us off if I even dared to put the odd scrap of anything anywhere else but in a bin.

 

I might add that perhaps if I did the profile mentioned in the quote I wouldn’t have had the unpleasant experience at the ROH of being  accosted by an usher who demanded to see my ticket. This was all because I said, I didn’t need help finding my seat as I come here often. 

 

I am not a big fan of the Coliseum and one of the reasons is the staff but at least they’ve never accosted me in such an aggressive manner as at the ROH. Staffing is quite important. I’d been going to ROH regularly and supported them as a Friend and there I was been suspected of having crept past the door staff st the entrance to sit in an amphitheater (side) seat.  Tried not make a big deal of it but several weeks later I was still seething so I wrote an email to them and I did receive a warm response with an apology and a request for permission to use the incident to train staff.

[Jan McNulty]

7 hours ago, Jam Dancer said:

 

I might add that perhaps if I did the profile mentioned in the quote I wouldn’t have had the unpleasant experience at the ROH of being  accosted by an usher who demanded to see my ticket. This was all because I said, I didn’t need help finding my seat as I come here often. 

 

 

 

Not audience related but this caused me to remember when my boss and I had been in London for a meeting and I stayed on to see Fille (Michael Colman's final performance at ROH although I did not know that at the time).  I was staying with a chum.  As we left the theatre to walk back to Waterloo we were caught in a cloud burst.  The following morning I felt and looked like death warmed up.  My shoes were still sodden so my friend gave me an old pair of her running shoes and some socks (as they were too big).  I got back on the train at Euston (I had a first class ticket) wearing my skirt with black tights, white socks and disreputable running shoes.  The lady from the buffet came up to me as I flopped down in a seat and asked me if I was aware it was first class!

 

Appearances can be very deceptive.

[Mary]

Very entertaining indeed, thank you!

Translation please; what is an 'anti-vaxxer'?

 

Someone who refuses to be  vaccinated??  or perhaps someone who resists cleaning the carpets?

 

[Colman]

Someone who  believes vaccination is a big lie and refuses to vaccinate themselves or (more usually) their kids. Cf measles epidemics in rich places.