Audience Behaviour - Thread 2

[Tango Dancer]

Thanks @Emeralds I was a bit tired last night to look up the conductor and didn't get a programme. He did a really good job with the orchestra who were very responsive.

 

Elsa Dreisig was amazing, such vocal power and control and real purity of tone. I also really liked Nicola Alaimo who played Nottingham. 

 

I'm not a massive Donizetti fan but it was well worth it and a really strong production. 

 

 

[Amelia]

A friend of mine, a devoted fan of Osipova, sent me an email describing his experience at the last performance of Swan Lake last week:

 

"Sadly my enjoyment of her performance was spoiled by a middle-aged ... neighbour who could not stop moving. As well as thinking herself more important than other audience members (“I move because I do not need to see everything”) she rocked back and forth every few bars, switched her rucksack with her other bag and back again, kept wrapping a blanket around her hands and then unwrapping it, all while fiddling with her hair and glasses. I did not stay for Act 4.”

 

What to do with such “neighbours”?

[JNC]

Tricky one - sometimes I get so irritated I just tap them and ask them to stop whatever the behaviour is (I’ve previously asked people to not lean forward, stop using a piece of paper as a fan as the flicking back and forth was really distracting and of course told people to be quiet if a sharp shhh didn’t work two or three times!) 

 

One could be generous and say this person might be so unaware their behaviour is distracting. I don’t really think that’s an excuse if you apply common sense but also if no one says anything then how will they know (/justify continuing their ignorance). 
 

If you feel difficult to say something in the moment either because you don’t want to cause a scene or be a distraction yourself, a word in the interval directly to the person or the usher is what I’d suggest. Or try and just ignore it if you accept you don’t want to do anything but that is very difficult to do if you’re annoyed!

[AnneMarriott]

The behaviour Amelia describes sounds like a compulsion, such as OCD.  Of course that's small comfort for those affected by it!

[Kate_N]

A dear friend of mine cannot keep still while watching shows. She sees it as her character, and says in an airy way "Oh, I have so much energy, I can't sit and watch like everyone else!"  (Translation: "I'm special." - Well, aren't we all? But most of us manage not to fidget with our entire bodies in a theatre seat)

 

It's a good thing that in all other respects, she's a lovely person & brilliant company. I just don't go to the theatre with her.