I love going to the theatre and I have been fortunate enough to see hundreds of productions, many of them more than once. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to meet and interview a number of performers, writers and directors, which has only added to my respect for the amount of hard work that happens both on and off the stage to bring a production together.

With live performance, some level of unpredictability is always part of the deal and that is generally understood and accepted. Things do go wrong from time to time and the performers and crew pause or adjust when they need to. Over the years, I have seen performances rightly stopped for medical emergencies in the audience, understudies take over after the interval when a performer has been taken ill and intervals extended while technical issues behind the scenes are resolved. These moments are part of live theatre, handled professionally and for good reason.

What feels different now is that the biggest disruptions in theatre no longer tend to come from genuine accidents or technical issues, but from the audience itself. Talking, heckling, phones, filming, and treating performances like some sort of background entertainment have become more commonplace, and they are always far more distracting and frustrating than anything going wrong on stage.

The Bloke and I have noticed that incidents of poor audience behaviour has increased significantly, particularly since restrictions were lifted after the covid-19 lockdowns. I see videos of theatre audience disruption all the time on social media, including physical fights, shows being stopped and people being removed by security. Recently a video went viral after a man challenged a row of women behind him for being disruptive during the first half of a show, and it brought back memories of many similar moments The Bloke and I have witnessed first-hand while at the theatre. 

Here are just some of the highlights:

American Idiot: A woman sitting next to us pulled out an entire buffet, including different types of salads and sandwiches, all packed in Tupperware boxes. She and her family indulged in a full picnic during the first half, throwing the things she didn’t like (like bits of lettuce) on the floor – there was food everywhere. At the same time, a man behind us loudly proclaimed at the beginning of the show to everyone around him that Greenday were his favourite band and he couldn’t care less if people didn’t like it, he was going to sing. And true to his word, he did – so loudly that we couldn’t hear the performers. We moved to the back in the second half, as did several others.

RENT: A woman sitting next to us had an iPad with the details of the show and cast and was reading through it on her (very bright) screen during the first half. It was only when someone sitting on the opposite side of her asked her to turn it off that she put the iPad away.

Chicago: A woman sitting behind us sang along loudly to every single song and copied the choreography. She stayed seated the entire time, but still managed to perform the dances enthusiastically, all while remaining in her chair. We realised what she was doing when she started kicking the backs of everyone’s seats repeatedly and we turned round to look at what was going on.

Rocky Horror Show: I have seen Rocky Horror five times and the audience participation is one of my favourite things about it. However, in one of the performances we were sitting in the stalls, and two women on the front row were so excited that they stood up for the entirety of the performance, blocking the view of the people sitting in multiple rows behind them. During the musical numbers, they danced and waved their arms in the air while singing along as loudly as they could. We were quite a few rows behind and the stage view wasn’t blocked, but I can only imagine how annoyed those sitting close to them were.

Steel Magnolias: A man sitting across from us spent the entire first half talking and using his phone, which understandably irritated the person sitting in front of him. After being asked several times to be quiet, the man on his phone leaned forward and deliberately coughed on the back of the other man’s (bald) head, then carried on doing the same thing.

Bat Out of Hell: Two very drunk men in the row in front spent the first half singing as loudly as they could to every single song, then talked and laughed during the dialogue. At the interval, our entire row moved to a set of empty seats further away, the couple next to us complained to security and the men were warned that they would be removed if they weren’t quiet. It didn’t make much difference to their behaviour in the second half, but we were far enough away they we couldn’t hear them as much.

The Staying Relevant Podcast Live Show: Two very drunk women were clearly thrilled to see Pete Wicks and made a point of announcing it repeatedly, shouting “WE LOVE YOU, PETE!” throughout the performance. They were so loud that the show was disrupted more than once, to the point where everyone on stage were visibly thrown off and lost their place.

Hercules: Two men sitting directly in front of us talked throughout the entire first half, and they weren’t subtle about it either. We were about five rows away from the front of the stage and I have no idea how the performers didn’t get distracted by it. Thankfully, they were a bit quieter in the second half.

And the most mind-blowing thing The Bloke and I have seen at the theatre has to be this:

Midnight Train to Georgia: The super-talented Gladys Knight tribute performer was mid-song, and a member of the audience walked up to the front of the stage and stopped the performer to complain about her seats. To her credit, the performer remained in character, told her to speak to an usher and started the song again. 

Live theatre depends as much on the audience as it does on the people on stage. Most come ready to watch, listen and enjoy the experience, but when behaviour crosses into distraction, it affects everyone around them and the performers on the stage. Theatre tickets aren’t cheap, and for many people, going to a show is a real treat. 

So if you are planning a trip to the theatre any time soon, please just shut up, put your phone away and let everyone enjoy the show they paid to be there for.