September 30, 2009

TO GO OR NOT TO GO

Laurie Atkinson posted 15 Sep 2009, 02:39 PM / edited 15 Sep 2009, 03:15 PM

I don’t know about you but I’m getting pissed off with people who go to the loo in the middle of a play. Are peoples’ bladders getting weaker? Is the ease of getting a drink at the bar the problem? Have people forgotten their parents’ warning before the family went anywhere: “Have you been?” Or do people think that they can behave in a theatre as they can at home in front of the TV?

The worst behaviour I have seen recently was at Circa 2 when, nearing the climax of the play, a man sitting in the centre of the front row with the two principal actors less than a metre in front of him, got up and walked out. A few minutes later he returned and ignoring the two empty seats by the door he returned to his seat where his partner gave him a hug to welcome him back and they then settled down to watch the last few minutes of the play.

Last year a man sat next to me at Downstage then, shortly before the play was about to start, he dashed off to the bar. He returned with a large plastic glass full of beer. The inevitable happened and half-an-hour or so  later he had to leave disturbing not only the row he was sitting in but also the entire audience and no doubt the long suffering actors and then we all had to put with his return to his seat.

Circa 2 and Bats have only one exit but at Downstage there are exits on both sides of the theatre so one wonders why all three people at Jo Randerson’s play on last Friday night had to walk across the auditorium between the audience and the stage.

However, I do have one fond memory of one loo-going interruption to a play. It was in 1983 at Circa’s old Harris Street theatre and the play was King Lear. It was in many ways an interesting production under Richard Campion’s direction. Ray Henwood made an impressive Lear, Grant Tilly a brilliant Fool and Jim Moriarty played – probably for the only time in theatrical history – both Edmund and Edgar!

The audience was seated facing the only exit, which the actors used but they also sat at the side of the stage when they weren’t in a scene. For an audience member to leave he or she had to creep down the centre aisle and then walk past the seated actors and out through the doors into the foyer where Jim Moriarty might well have been rehearsing how he was going to fight to the death with himself.

It was Dr Eric Geiringer who braved the journey through the audience, past the actors and out into the foyer in search of the loos. On his return he very sensibly decided not to work his way back to his seat, so he sat down with the actors at the side of the stage. Ginette McDonald, who was playing Regan in a leopard skin pantsuit and a fur coat, was smoking a cigarette (in character) and so Dr Geiringer decided to light up too and there he remained happily amongst the actors until the interval.

When did you last hear a mobile phone ring in a theatre? I haven’t heard one for ages so maybe all those warnings you used to hear before the lights went down paid off. The answer to the loo problem could be that ushers when checking tickets should become surrogate parents and ask “Row C seats 10 and 11 – and did you go before you left home?” Or, more seriously, maybe ushers should not let people back into the auditorium until an interval.

But then how many plays have intervals these days? On Friday night at the opening of Jo Randerson’s latest play at Downstage three people left. Two presumably went to the loo because they returned, the third luckily didn’t return but then it was a play that lasted 108 minutes without an interval, and maybe the scarcity of intervals these days is also part of the problem.

The odd thing is that when I go to the movies (no intervals, plenty of liquid refreshment available, and always at least two exits) which I admit isn’t all that often, people rarely seem to go to the loo. Why?

THE END

P.S. I have just been informed that Jo Randerson has inserted an interval into her thoroughly enjoyable goodmight – the end at Downstage so audience members will now be able to hang on until the interval.

John Smythe      posted 15 Sep 2009, 04:10 PM

This happens at Bats too, invariably involving young women in wooden-heeled boots clomping percussively down the resonant steps. And most shows at Bats take less than an hour! I recommend pelvic floor exercises.

Dean Hewison   posted 15 Sep 2009, 07:50 PM

 “I recommend pelvic floor exercises” – John Smythe, Theatreview

Got to be careful what you write on here, John – someone will put it on a poster.

Joseph Harper   posted 15 Sep 2009, 09:21 PM

A sign that people are either more comfortable in the theatre (a good thing I think) or less interested in what’s on stage (a bad thing I think).

Michael Wray    posted 16 Sep 2009, 11:09 AM

“Two presumably went to the loo because they returned, the third luckily didn’t return…”

That might have more to do with not having time to get back before the play ended. If it is the one I am thinking of, she started to come down the stairs before Aaron Cortesi’s surprise entrance gave her an apparent fright. She stayed standing in seeming indecision for several minutes before sitting down again. When she finally felt safe to go, the play was very close to ending.

Not allowing re-admission until interval would be appropriate providing people are forewarned of the policy. Do theatres still operate a blanket no late-admissions policy? It would be a mere extension of that.

Intervals provide two benefits as far as I can see – to provide an opportunity of relief the continence-challenged and to generate some bar sales. Short plays aside, I would expect theatres to want to take advantage.

Phone noises are still around. One mobile rang during Bedlam recently and there were several beep-beep text alerts during The Pohutukawa Tree on the nights I went. At least people seem to have got the message that vibrate mode is not the same as silent. My favourite mobile interruption incident was during a performance of Wheeler’s Luck at Circa 2. It occurred during the community hall forum scene, so Nigel Collins and Toby Leach turned on the offender as a meeting chairman possibly would… much to the delight of the rest of the audience.

cameron rhodes               posted 29 Sep 2009, 04:08 PM / edited 29 Sep 2009, 04:44 PM

In the Herald today: Hugh Jackman stops play to scold cellphone offender!

For Herald article Click here. For YouTube clip click this. 

Also: Patrick Stewart in The Guardian

Editor    posted 29 Sep 2009, 08:53 PM

Thanks Cameron. You’ve posed an interesting moral dilemma here: the footage on YouTube was clearly illegally obtained. Is Theatreview equally culpable, then, for posting the link to it?  What do people think?

Michael Wray    posted 29 Sep 2009, 09:08 PM

The Theatreview Website may contain links to third party websites that are not owned or controlled by Theatreview. Theatreview has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party websites. In addition, Theatreview will not and cannot censor or edit the content of any third-party site. By using the Website, you expressly relieve Theatreview from any and all liability arising from your use of any third-party website.

There you go. Not anymore Ed. In the legal sense that is. I’ll leave the morality debate to others… for now anyway.

Editor    posted 30 Sep 2009, 09:57 AM

Thanks Michael. Looking at the clip again, it looks as if it’s shot from a tripod – or with a very steady hand – high in the auditorium, so I’m guessing it was being recorded by management for in-house purposes and they posted it to the Web. This theory assuages my moral qualms.