A nap has made the news as Peter Hall, former director of the RSC, woke up from one when he muttered his opinion on the stage debut performance of Downton Abbey star Laura Carmichael. With this he interrupted the play’s final speech during the press night of "Uncle Vanya".
It could be seen as a comment on the production and the british state of theatre that people continue to snooze trough shows, which makes heckling not it’s biggest problem.
Heckling needs more effort and is not uncommon in theatre, prior to the 19th century audiences would be vocal in their opinions during Shakespeare plays or hissed the actor off the stage at Drury Lane.
Although I think it is somewhat funny a former theatre director could not help himself but to express his opinion, I would have hated him for it if I had been in the audience. I don’t believe heckling has a place in the theatre, neither does napping, texting or talking for that matter, I believe it won’t do the performance any good if the audience just keeps yelling to the actors on stage. For me personally it would ruin my night as I like to sit quietly and completely entranced by the performance when I am watching a play or musical. So I pray heckling never comes back into fashion inside the theatre, except for stand up comedy of course.
Read the complete article here:
and for a discussion on bad behavior in the theatre:
I really agree with you on this one. I hate it when somebody interrupts a play. It has no addition to the play, and the only thing you will accomplish is to irritate the audience. If there is not already such a rule, they should make it so that whenever somebody is heckling, her or she can be removed from the theatre.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that!
ReplyDeleteI am still in shock about what happened at Miss Saigon last year, people behind me kept talking throughout act one, so in the intermission I asked them kindly if they could stop as they were ruining my experience of the show. The woman looked at me with the biggest combination of surprise and arrogance and told me "We are trying to speak really slow and soft so I believe you are overreacting" .... I think my jaw is still at the floor of the Beatrix Theatre, as I was so shocked. Luckily I spotted someone I knew who worked there and since the woman thought I was complaining about them (which I was not) they shut up for the second act. It's not heckling but anything that disrupts others during a show can annoy the hell out of me!