[imagesource:twitter/tashalou96]

Theatres across the United Kingdom will have to come up with new ways to control audience members behaving badly.

Just recently, on Good Friday nogal, police were called to a performance of The Bodyguard musical after staff at Manchester’s Palace Theatre tried to stop an audience member from singing loudly.

They were apparently greeted with “unprecedented levels of violence”, according to the venue’s front-of-house supervisor.

This, unfortunately, is far from being an isolated incident, notes The Guardian, as live-show venues have been contending with numerous other examples of audiences behaving badly. There are reports of crowds heckling, screaming, live-streaming, urinating and even copulating during shows.

Rowdy audience members halted a performance of The Bodyguard musical in Manchester last night. More here: https://t.co/WzPf9fR9pD pic.twitter.com/D6A9IYFk9a

— BBC North West (@BBCNWT) April 8, 2023

Terrible theatre-goers are apparently quite pervasive:

A recent survey by the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (Bectu) found that 90% of theatre venue employees had experienced or witnessed unacceptable behaviour from audiences – including assaults, vandalism and racist language – and 70% said things were worse than pre-pandemic. Standup and jukebox musicals, which feature the hits of famous acts, were the worst for bad behaviour.

While it is often deplorable for audience members to eat, tap their feet or merely get up to use the toilet or laugh too loudly, the behaviour that is derailing performances is a lot more unacceptable:

Other incidents of disruptive behaviour occurred recently during performances of Bat Out of Hell and The Drifters Girl in London, as well as Jersey Boys in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile the Royal Opera House handed a lifetime ban to someone who heckled a child singer; the newsletter Popbitch and the comedian Tom Houghton have each reported couples having sex during performances; and an audience member at the Harold Pinter theatre took photos of James Norton naked in A Little Life (this turned out to be a pap who then sold them).

One front-of-house theatre assistant says disruptive incidents occur weekly now and are becoming increasingly serious:

“Myself and my colleagues have been physically assaulted. We’ve broken up fights, stopped people urinating in their seats, been screamed at.” In her experience, large touring musicals are particularly disruptive. “People tend to be very intoxicated before they arrive and treat the show like a gig. This causes clashes with other audience members. With large amounts of alcohol, things can escalate quickly.”

Ploughing alcohol before and during a show is indeed largely to blame:

In the Bectu survey, more than half of respondents felt their employers needed better drink policies. “Alcohol does play a part,” says Philippa Childs, head of Bectu. “We think there should be limits.” Respondents also highlighted audiences’ sense of entitlement, perhaps linked to the cost of living. “Lots of these shows are expensive,” says Maddie, “meaning people feel like they are entitled to behave as they please.”

Besides extreme inebriation, there is also the issue of finding oneself smack bang back in a post-pandemic reality:

Alexander Bennett has been a standup for 14 years and mostly performs in London. “Heckling has increased a bit but sadly not improved,” he says. “But chatter is far more disruptive and difficult to deal with. We spent two years looking at each other through screens. Some people’s brains still think they’re behind that glass. But we can all see and hear them now, and we’d like them to shut up.”

Because phones have become like second limbs, there has also been an increase in people live-streaming shows, which is obviously hugely disrespectful to the performers whose livelihoods depend on audience attendance and ticket sales.

As a result of all this misbehaving, venues across the board are having to come up with creative ways and hard-and-fast rules to govern audience behaviour.

The job is clearly no joke.

[source:guardian]