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Way to Go, Kevin!Dateline: 22nd September, 2004Last Saturday I went to see Così Fan Tutte, for pleasure, of course, but also to review for the BTG. ten minutes into the performance I developed a tickle in my throat and knew that I would very soon start coughing, so, being on the end of the row, I got up and as silently and unobtrusively as possible, left the auditorium, went to the bar and asked for a glass of water. I should say that this particular theatre (Customs House, South Shields) allows drinks in the auditorium in plastic glasses. They very quickly gave me a glass and I went back into the auditorium. I decided it would be too disruptive to return to my seat and, for tunately, the theatre is built in such a way that it is possible to be very close to the stage whilst still totally out of sight of the audience, so I decided to sit on the floor where I would disturb no-one until the interval. I mentioned this to the theatre's PR manager a couple of days later and he laughed. "No-one else would have done that," he said. And he's absolutely right: from recent experience I can honestly say that the vast majority of people have no qualms whatsoever about disturbing others. In one show recently two people held a whispered conversation throughout the whole of the second act. Last night, in another theatre, I heard the auditorium door opening and closing two or three times during the last act of The Merry Widow; then there was a pause and it opened again, and a man called along the back row to his wife. She got up out of her seat and left, and the door swung closed behind them. In both of these cases it was not young people who caused the disturbance but people in their sixties or seventies - people who should know better. And haven't we all been in theatres when, in spite of notices and announcements requesting they be turned off, mobile phones have rung? And haven't we all sat close to someone who has, throughout the show, constantly eaten cellophane-wrapped sweets? So I applaud Kevin Spacey's justifiably annoyed suggestion that people who are not prepared to abide by theatre etiquette should stay at home. There is absolutely no doubt that an increasing percentage of audience members - of all age groups (and I have to say that kids are probably the smallest part) - who have no consideration whatsoever for those around them and think nothing of disturbing everyone else. It is, thank goodness, still a minority, and I am aware that in writing this for a theatre website I am preaching to the converted, but isn't it annoying? So please, if you hear anyone whinging how dare Spacey talk like that about audiences, tell them he's right! Articles Indices:
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