Eventful theatre trip

Gin
The only time I have been rude to a fellow theatre goer was at a musical when the dear girl next to me decided to sing along with the cast to every song. She got a sharp dig and told until she learned to sing in tune she had better shut up as it was like sitting next to next to a stuck pig. Not another sound was uttered!

Yes I experienced this to at a musical. The woman behind us a couple of seats along was signing away, it was like a fly buzzing around. We didnt like the musical and left at the interval (only time we have ever done this). If we had stayed I would either have spoken to her or a member of staff

Primrose53

Poppyred

What a rude man! Don’t blame you at all for putting him in his place. HOWEVER…..is there any need to eat noisily in a theatre? NO!

I wasn’t eating noisily. All I did was open the top of the packet! The sweets inside were not wrapped individually.
I actually ate 2 tiny sweets and after he jabbed me 3 times I put them in my bag and didn’t move a muscle. However, I had to put up with the horrible smell of damp and mothballs coming off him for the rest of the evening.

Sorry Primrose 53 I meant the people around you.

moorlikeit

He should have been more polite but the excuse that “everyone was doing it” sounds like children I have taught and is a very poor excuse indeed.
I am totally with M0nica - eat before you go in and give full concentration to the performance. I feel very sorry for actors and more considerate audience members having to endure the incredible deterioration in behaviour in recent times.
I have decided not to go to any play with a celebrity actor as fans seem unaware of how to behave and ruin it for others.

I said that because people immediately in front of us and behind us were already eating sweets but he said nothing to them. Would you have just sat there and said nothing?

The theatre obviously don’t mind otherwise they would put up signs asking people not to eat andthey wouldn’t sell snacks.

Poppyred

What a rude man! Don’t blame you at all for putting him in his place. HOWEVER…..is there any need to eat noisily in a theatre? NO!

I wasn’t eating noisily. All I did was open the top of the packet! The sweets inside were not wrapped individually.
I actually ate 2 tiny sweets and after he jabbed me 3 times I put them in my bag and didn’t move a muscle. However, I had to put up with the horrible smell of damp and mothballs coming off him for the rest of the evening.

With regard to unpleasant body odours, I taught a child with a most unpleasant smell, despite being spotlessly clean. Years later we heard that while in hospital for adenoidal trouble, the consultant discovered a small plastic bead embedded in a nasal cavity which had festered for years and caused the odour. Once removed and odour -free she entered a new lease of life.

When Covid restrictions were still in place it helped sometimes that you had to wear a mask whilst travelling on public transport. I have sat close to people, usually men, whose lack of personal hygiene was off putting to say the least.
Since then I keep a mask in my shopping bag and would not hesitate to pop one on if I thought it was needed.

What a rude man! Don’t blame you at all for putting him in his place. HOWEVER…..is there any need to eat noisily in a theatre? NO!

I was once on a bus when an extremely smelly man got on. He looked clean and tidy and it wasn't a hot day - but the pong. It smelt like a rubbish dump with rotting fish. It was diabolical. People moved away from him until they were clustered round the front. I had to put my hand over my face. The smell was so awful.
I actually googled it when I got home and there was a medical term for it. The poor man must have had this malabsorption syndrome. Rare but probably very disabling. Nobody would employ someone who smelt so bad or enter into a relationship with him. An unexpected cruel disability.
I'm glad he was never on my bus again though.

Another household of opera lovers. My sister worked at the Royal Opera House in the 1960s and as well as getting last minute unsold tickets for various performances, she was also able to get us tickets to see Fonteyn and Nuriyev dance in Romeo and Juliet.

We went to Glynebourne for a number of years. First because a friend got discounted tickets and more recently the Glynebourne Touring Opera have done a short season at Glynebourne before starting the tour. They do evening performances in late September/Octoberwhen it is too late to picnic, and at a considerably reduced price on full season tickets.

Our worst experience was when Glynebourne Touring Opera came to Oxford and a large man who looked as if he had been dressed by hs mother in 1970 and hadn't changed since, sat in front of us - and it became rapidly clear he hadn't had a bath since 1970 either. To say he smelled rank is an understatement.

The couple sitting next to him changed places so the husband, not wife had him close and personal, and I was sat directly behind him. By the interval, I told DH that I had had as much as I could stand, we either had to see if there were any spare seats elsewhere in the theatre or we would have to go home. So we decided to seek out the house manager.

As we got to the foyer, we saw the couple who had been sitting next to him leaving the theatre. We spoke to the manager, all tickets had been sold, but 2 people hadn't turned up, so we were given their seats on the condition that we had to vacate them if they turned up. They didn't. It was a superb performance of Queen of Spades and I am so glad we did not miss it, but it was a close run thing.

Madeleine45 what a lovely memory of Glyndebourne. Makes me wish I could go.

When we lived in London we used to go to Covent Garden regularly and at in the Grand Tier. A little way along the row from us one couple sat through the first dance, a different couple for the second and yet another for the third. They all continued to talk as the house lights went down which I found very annoying because I like to compose myself, ready for the performance.

After we moved to Suffolk and were short of money we used to stand at the back of the stalls. An excellent view of the stage, no heads in the way, a comfortable padded rail to lean on and able to get to the bar before everyone else. All for £4 each.

As a singer and someone who has been in plays and operas and various performances I am very anti people eating in the theatre at all whilst watching. fine for the intervals etc but I find it quite insulting that when we have put in so much work and effort to produce a good performance people have to rustle, rattle and make no effort to sit quietly and spoil other peoples enjoyment. Even worse the wretched people who have seen it before and want to tell you what is coming next!! In general I do not go to either theatres or cinemas very often as this constant racket and selfish behaviour spolis what was mean tto be a pleasant occasion. The only things that I do find tend to be worth while is when cinemas put on an opera direct from Verona or such. I have had some wonderful evenings watching those as usually the rest of the audience are keen music lovers too and are quiet and respectful. so you get some wonderful modern touches where they use drones to take you into the amphitheatres etc. Have been to many of the places in the past and it really does get the sense of the place well. Thank goodness my one wonderful trip to Glyndebourne was years ago and a day that I treasure and will never forget. Everyone there was there because they loved the music. They all wanted to be there and you had the joy of wonderful performance (it was Cosi Fan Tutti) the great picnic in the beautiful gardens and surrounded by people all taking about the performance and other people they had heard in the operat etc. I had bought my mother a ticket for her birthday as she had sung all her life but not professionally and it was a day to remember with no phones ringing or people eating in the performance. Everyone was there to enjoy themselves but without spoiling it for others. what a great memory to have and definitely why I no longer go to things where the boxes are filled with people who are not very interested in the actual situation whether it is the Grand National or the FA cup or whatever, when it is all corporation entertainment and so you have lost that pleasure of enjoying a special occasion with others of a like mind. Sad to see that go but thats how it is now.

pascal30

I always try to book a seat at the end of a row. I don't like people on both sides of me.. great retort btw Primrose53 must have been very unpleasant smell, not mention behaviour...

We booked seats nearest aisle. Daughter on end, then me, then our sharp elbowed thespian.

I love going to the cinema, but we usually choose a matinee these days - they’re always quiet in every respect. We had a private viewing of one film last year.

When we retired we got into the habit of going every week to the Senior Vue screenings - I think they were £4, including tea or coffee and biscuits. I never saw anyone refuse them. We enjoyed films we probably wouldn’t have thought of going to normally. Sadly our local Vue never reinstated them after lockdown.

I actually won an essay competition once, describing this sort of thing (but during a film). That having been said, I would not have put my sweets away (I don't like sweets, but it would have been nuts) just because an entitled pompous git told me to do so. I would have told him that my sweets smelled better than he does...

I don't no why people cannot last a couple of hours without eating.

I had not been to the cinema for years because the sound is too loud but went last week to a complex that is quite new. The big armchair seats were for taller folk than me, my legs did not reach the ground and if I sat back I was gazing at the ceiling. I was amazed by the swing arm tables for food and drink, it is obvious they want you to buy food for the place to be economically viable. However, no noisy eaters as fortunately the place was almost empty. Michael Caine does not have the pulling power he once had!

The only time I have been rude to a fellow theatre goer was at a musical when the dear girl next to me decided to sing along with the cast to every song. She got a sharp dig and told until she learned to sing in tune she had better shut up as it was like sitting next to next to a stuck pig. Not another sound was uttered!

He should have been more polite but the excuse that “everyone was doing it” sounds like children I have taught and is a very poor excuse indeed.
I am totally with M0nica - eat before you go in and give full concentration to the performance. I feel very sorry for actors and more considerate audience members having to endure the incredible deterioration in behaviour in recent times.
I have decided not to go to any play with a celebrity actor as fans seem unaware of how to behave and ruin it for others.

Well done op. He deserved that, and more. I think you were very restrained.
However, as other pps are surely aware, noisy eating and drinking in a cinema is definitely not the same as doing it during a live theatre performance.
Not only have the audience generally paid several times the price for the privilege of being disturbed in a live theatre, but the noise is also very distracting to the actors and can inhibit their performances.
(Although my response to that would be to consider the noises of the audience the bard had to play to!)

RosiesMaw I am pretty sure they do sell popcorn and crisps, but posh ones, and they come in tubs, so no noisy bags!
Like you the glass of wine is a must.....

Last time I went to an afternoon cinema performance the theatre was half empty. 2 adults and their 2 teenage children sat a couple of rows in front of us and started eating nachos and then crisps and sweets. The parents had their feet up on the empty row in front and later so did the children who continually used their phones which was a further distraction. What chance do we have when parents teach their children in this way?

Simply cannot understand why people cannot go for 2 or 3 hours without eating something. The popcorn buckets at cinemas are the worst - all that rustling and chomping, not to mention the smell! Really repulsive, it's why I don't go to the cinema any more. There should be a ban on eating in public auditoria during the performance. As somebody upthread said, what was wrong with a drink/ice cream in the interval?

Imight
have been less polite

biglouis

I prefer to wait until the films come on Netflix then I can watch in peace without yahoos all around me.

The only sensible way, for us as well.

Don't have to get dogs ready to be alone, leave home, drive, find parking, pay, see any yahoos -- just peace and quiet! Lovely.

Well done Primrose, love the "mothballs"! He's lucky he wasn't sitting next to us, as he'd have been told that at the time. Something like "keep touching me up and I'll be calling for the manager". Etc. My OH might have specially got a drink (wouldn't usually) to spill it on him.