It is my opinion that, should one be fortunate enough to spend the evening at the theater, and one’s theater companion should happen to fall asleep and begin snoring so loudly that he can be heard over the tap dancing numbers in 42nd Street, one has a moral obligation to do whatever is necessary to make him stop.
That is all.
Um, yeah.
And if his phone starts emitting Steppenwolf ringtones, thou shalt hang from thy balcony the party of offence by the ankles until the sound doth desist, with a warning to thou against repetition at peril to the tonicity of thou’s mortal vessel.
“Life every man holds dear, but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.”
(I dunno…I guess I’m in a Bard mood tonight.)
Stranger
And this, dear friends, is why I try to avoid theatre both legitimate and ill as much as possible. It’s bad enough for ME, having to sit among {cringe} other people , but put me in a dark room with little or no opportunity for movement, and I fall right the heck to sleep. Mrs. Polekitty understands this and only makes me attend certain very interesting things which keep me engaged enough to stay awake, but generally… I just can’t do it.
Why isn’t there a Snoring smiley?
I like the sign in my parish. “Switch off the phone, God doesn’t need one to hear you.”
There’s theaters here where the signs threaten with confiscation of any phones that sound, ring, buzz, wiggle or are in any way being used during the play or movie. A friend who owns a movie theater told me he was considering dipping them in water but his wife advised against (she’s a lawyer).
Sleeping is OK as far as the generalpopulance goes. Whatever personal issues this brings up is best left to the participants.
Now, snoring in public is a far different issue. It is perfectly OK to snore alone in one’s abode. It is perfectly Ok to do so if one’s roomie is cool with that.
HOWEVER, snoring in public, when it disrupts others is a clear sign of passive-aggressive tendencies and a clear “screw you” to one’s fellow man. In this case, it is perfectly permissible to tip the offender out of his/her seat to the floor far, far below.
…After making sure theat the miscreant will not impact any proper patrons, of course, as that would immediately brand one as yet another ill-mannered peon who cares not about the sensibilities of others!
I apologise for bringing a note of common-ness to this cultured thread, but when I went to see Harry Potter and the GoF the father of the family sitting behind me ( he was in the back row, against the wall) had brough a pillow. Which he started sleeping on pretty much as soon as he sat down. Even if the film isn’t your cup of tea, surely it’s better than sleeping? And what was he doing there, anyway, if he didn’t want to be? ( There were two other parents with the group, so I assume he didn’t have to be there ). Madness. He didn’t snore, though, thank god.
The funniest incident I ever experienced was being in the audience watching a performance, and halfway through someone in the row behind me started to LOUDLY snore. It was rather annoying and I tried to do the old casual look behind to see the perpetrator, nope all eyes were open. After fuming for a bit I just let it go, after all they were comp tickets anyway. In fact it was a season opener and most people in the audience were guests, so really it was not like anyone paid to be there.
After the show as we were all drinking in the green room I asked if anyone knew who it was. It ended up that this boisterous “old man” snoring came from the head of the theatre’s four year old son. Man that kid has some powerful lungs. 