Ken Stott evicts audience !

[dpgmel]

Just been reading about Ken Stott stopping a performance of The View Fron the Bridge for 15 minutes and demanding that a party of unruly schoolchildren left, which they eventually did.



From my personal viewpoint I applaud his action as I've been sat in theatres with some, shall we say, unruly elements.



I know there are theatregoers here so I'd be interested in your views on this.

[GRAEME]

I wonder if he stayed in character or just stepped out of the play until they had gone?



The first would have been fun!

[narabdela]

Good for him! It must have been distracting for the performers as well as the audience.



Did someone not stop a performance recently and demand that a mobile phone user be evicted?

[batman]

Well done Ken!

[Captain Casper]

Shame the same can't be done in cinemas. I've lost count of the times I've shouted across the auditorium at some little scroat flashing their mobile phone. One next to me was most unfortunate. They were sending texts and I happened to spill Fanta all over their nice coat that was on the floor. They weren't impressed when lights went up.

[CaptainWaggett]

Though witnesses to the event have had different views. Not everyone agreed there was any significant disruption and I've read people suggesting that there was an unpleasant mob mentality in the way people were shouting at the kids. Mr Stott did slightly lose my sympathy when he said that actors don't like groups in the audience. Well, I'm sure we'd all like to pick our clients but we can't all be so lucky...



Maybe I've been very lucky - I can only remember a couple of times when my viewing pleasure has been disturbed by audience members (both times parents explaining the plot to their bored kids - notably a mother with two pre-schoolers at Sweeney Todd who decided that the songs were an appropriate time to explain all the nuances of the rape and cannibalism) out of 100s of theatre trips. Perhaps I just go to the wrong shows...

[Bernardo]

I would have thought that the Front of Theatre management would have taken the matter in hand if there were those spoiling the performance.

The perils of taking an unwilling English class to the theatre I suppose. Which reminds me of a production of Macbeth for schools when the whole theatre was cleared due to smoke from the witches fire getting out of control, smoke alarms, choking atmosphere, etc.

[Dame Starry]

Didn't Richard Griffiths do this a few years ago?

[narabdela]

name='narabdela']Did someone not stop a performance recently and demand that a mobile phone user be evicted?

name='Dame Starry']Didn't Richard Griffiths do this a few years ago?

That's the one.

[davidb]

shouldnt this sort of thing be the job of the cinema/theatre manager ? it comes to something when the actors have to stop and intervene ,and thats not going to happen in the cinema is it ?.

are cinema/theatre job cutbacks to blame ? [ not that tickets are any cheaper ]

[ShirlGirl]

name='Captain Casper']Shame the same can't be done in cinemas. I've lost count of the times I've shouted across the auditorium at some little scroat flashing their mobile phone. One next to me was most unfortunate. They were sending texts and I happened to spill Fanta all over their nice coat that was on the floor. They weren't impressed when lights went up.

Pity you didn't pour it all over the blasted phone!

[narabdela]

Apparently it was just a group of three teenagers(plus teacher) who were involved. They were sitting in the front row, which made it much more distracting for the performers than for the audience.



You would think that one teacher could control three kids!

[Windthrop]

Nice one Ken

[pelam123]

I can understand an actor getting fed up with things like mobiles and excessive chattering noise but it seems from some of the audience that Stott totally over reacted to whatever the alleged disturbance was.



A few years ago I was at a play at Birmingham Rep, (in the smaller studio space) when I had a coughing fit about 10 mins in. I left to get over it and when I tried to return an usher informed me that the director had instructed that no-one was to be admitted or re-admitted once the play had started. In the end I managed to sneak back in to a spare seat at the edge of the stage on the front row.

[christoph404]

Ken Stott rebuked the unruly teenagers and their teacher out of character, ie in a broad Scots accent, from what I have read about it I think he was quite right to have the shame faced teacher and his pupils ( 2 or 3?) ejected from the theatre.

Al Pacino went a step further many years ago while performing a play in a fairly intimate theatre off Broadway. A woman in the front row had annoyed him during the first act by answering her ringing mobile phone and having a quick chat. During the second act her phone rang again but in the space of time it took her to answer it and put it to her ear, Pacino had stepped off the stage and grabbed the phone from her and bellowed down the mouthpiece, " This is Al Pacino here, Im trying to perform a ******* play now get off this line!" he then switched the phone off and tossed it back at the startled woman and carried on the play in character as if nothing had happened.... to a resounding round of applause.

[penfold]

I think it was The Wisconsin Bioscope Company that produced a silent film where a character comes off the screen and rebukes an audience member (planted) for his mobile phone use....

[CaptainWaggett]

What did the kids actually do? Some witnesses have said they giggled at inappropriate moments which is tough on the actors (though maybe it was funny - I certainly find Miller's hystrionics more comic than tragic) but may not have disturbed that much of the audience. Of course, they're unlikely to get the ear of a national newspaper to put their case...



A friend of mine saw Brian Cox stop a play (Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll) because of a mobile phone. After the culprit reluctantly owned up and switced it off, the was a brief pause while Cox, presumably, gathered his thoughts, then phone-guy was heard to say loudly -'You can carry on now'. Then his phone went off again about 10 minutes later...

[billy bentley]

My wife was at a Steven Berkoff one man performance where he answered an audience members cell phone with hilarious consequences. It was a small theatre and Berkoff was already amongst the audience. Mrs Bentley did not think it was a plant, due to seeing the seriously embarrased cell phone owner outside the theatre afterwards, but I guess it's possible.

[batman]

Noise from the audience can be very irritating and distracting for the actors. Even if the noise wasn't audible to the entire audience I am sure a few fluffed lines or missed cues would have soon upset them. I applaud Ken Stott for his actions.