As if stating that he abhors audiences (collectively, not individually!) wasn’t enough, Ian Hart is rumoured to have gone one better last week, at the curtain call of a performance of his new play, Speaking in Tongues. The actor is reported to be facing possible police investigation after allegedly attacking a theatregoer at the Duke of York’s theatre. Allegedly coming down from the stage via the pass door, he had to be restrained by ushers, at which point he apparently hurled a torrent of abuse about how the audience member was disrespecting himself and the other actors.
Truly bizarre behaviour by anyone’s standards, particularly in light of the fact that numerous audience members have come forward to say that they have no clue what Hart was talking about. An extreme reaction like this – especially as the man was said only to have spoken briefly – does make me reflect on the various reports, particularly in recent years, where actors have not taken too kindly to something in the audience.
We all heard about the on-stage complaints of Richard Griffiths and Kevin Spacey when mobile phones went off during performances, but the most recent is the incredible response to the same during a recent performance of A Steady Rain on Broadway, where stars Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig stayed in character, whilst Jackman encouraged the audience member in question to “grab the phone it doesn’t matter”! He went on to say “Come on, just turn it off unless you got a better story, you want to get up and tell your story?”, at which Craig chimed in with “Can you get that, whoever it is can you just get it? We can wait just get the phone”. I can only assume the audience member in question felt a little smaller than when they first arrived, as they should. There is nothing worse than hearing a phone going off, when you are absorbed in some incredible theatre, so that is multiplied for the actors giving their all to deliver it to you!
Of course, it’s not only mobile phones. Sometimes it’s sweet wrappers, loud whispers, or in the case of Alec Guinness, brusquely separating a lady on the front row from her pair of giant binoculars, which were obviously putting him off. Embarrassingly, he was then advised by an usher in the interval “The blind woman in the front row apologises if she upset you”. There remains a fine line between art being ruined by the inconsiderate few and equally rude prima donna behaviour, it seems.
It’s the people who have ‘generously’ put their phones to silent that get me. Most still consult their screens. I just cannot understand how anything that comes through on a mobile can be more interesting than what they have paid to see on stage – especially at current prices – but that’s another matter!
