An actor takes things into his own hands:
The article didn’t say if the guilty patron did, indeed, fuck off.
Huh. The BBC article I read earlier omitted the profanity altogether, although it’s not clear whether Griffiths spoke those exact words from the boards or if that’s Pugh’s embellishment.
As for the question of whether or not the offender actually fucked off, I have a hard time imagining someone remaining in their seat after the suggestion that their fucking off is in order was met with applause – but then I have a hard time imagining someone allowing their phone to ring repeatedly in the theatre, so who knows?
Word.
Excellent.
Why didn’t the Ushers do something sooner?
Cudos to Mr. Griffiths
Jim
This happens from time to time. I remember Brian Dennehy stormed off the set after a phone rang during a performance of Death of a Salesman.
Unless this problem is FAR worse in Britain, this is really sycophantic. It’s hard to believe, anyway. Here in the US, it’s been years since I heard a cell phone ring during a play. I know it happens, but…
Don’t go to the theatre very often, do you?
I’m not sure what you are trying to say…
From dictionary.com
That lady is going to the special hell.
I saw Katharine Hepburn in Boston in The West Side Waltz in the early 80s. The night before my performance an audience member took a flash picture. Hepburn stopped the show and berated the offender who was unceremoniously escorted to the door by ushers. The show then went on… You really need stage presence to pull that off, and she had it to give away.
Missed it by one damn night. :smack:
Moderator interjects: I’m not sure that this is really Cafe Society or the Pit, but I’m gonna leave it where it is. The forums do have fuzzy edges, sometimes.
I’d like to buy that man a beer.
I have only heard it once. During “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” at Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. It was right after intermission. The stage was in complete darkness, the only sounds the gentle sounds of the ocean.
And then a phone rang.
In my theater, there are seats on the stage, to the sides. It’s quite a neat place to watch the show from. I was sitting on the stage, stage right. The woman with the phone was on the stage, stage left.
She lit up the phone, in the complete darkness of the stage, to shut it off, so several hundred people saw her little green light.
And when the lights came up, Hamlet was looking directly at her, and glaring the Gaze of Death as only a good Shakespearean actor can.
But that’s the only time, outside of school plays, that I’ve actually heard it in a real theater. I refuse to discuss the movies, where I have not been so fortunate. Maybe Cincinnati theatergoers are just well-mannered. We midwesterners are known for our politeness, as you may know.
It could have been worse.
At a Renaissance festivial down here, there was a perfomer named “Broom” who’s a six and half foot tall juggler. He does some fire breathing and “upside down striaght jacket and chains” escapes too. He would berate anyone whose cell went off. He was so good at it, I’d catch his show just to see what he was doing to the poor unfortunates.
One day, someone got a cell phone call, answered it, and started to yap. Not too loudly, but it was still pretty disruptive. Broom dropped the three bowling balls he was juggling onto the stage, and stormed over to the guy.
“This is live theatre. We’re all actually here. Who are you talking to?”
“Um…my mom.”
Broom reached down, took the cell phone from the guy and told his mother that he was being a disruptive prick at a live show, and then hung up on her. He then turned to the rest of the auridence and said, “Who would like to spend the rest of the show making long distance calls on this guy’s phone?” The guy didn’t get bac his phone until the rest of the auridence had racked up some long distance minutes.
Frankly if that was my phone and someone pulled that, minutes wouldn’t be the only thing getting racked. I’d wager that’s not even legal.
I negelcted to mention that Broom asked for cell phone, rather than simply snatched it. He then passed it around right in front of the guy, who could have protested at any point, but did not. While it may have been asinine, I don’t think it was illegal. At least not any more illegal than passing around someone else’s salt shaker.
I used to work in a legit theater and 99% of the audience was very good about shutting off their phones, and some who forgot quickly turned them off. I cannot remember a single person actually talking on the phone in the theater during a live performance. Some had their phones on vibrator and would come out to the lobby to take a call from the doctor/babysitter/sick friend.
We did, however, have more problems with people taking photos. On all the doors into the theater, in big letters, it said, “The Taking Of Photographs In This Theater Is Forbidden By Law”. One time I got a call from the stage manager who said the woman in the third row, fourth seat from the aisle, had taken several photos. During intermission, the ushers swarmed, took her camera and removed the film.
“But my other vacation photos are on that film!”
“Should have thought of that before taking photos in here.”
But there are many stories…one woman pissed in her seat because she didn’t want to miss any of the play. One guy fell flat into the aisle and we had to call paramedics. The man was embarrassed to admit he had simply fallen asleep and fell out of his seat. And of course, there were always the happy drunks who think nobody can hear their whisper 34 aisles away, but they can. Oh the joy of working in live theater.
It happened at a play I was attending not more than 2 months ago in Seattle. It was during Night of the Iguana and happened right during the big “here-are-my-feelings-and-the-reason-for-writing-this-play” monologue at the end of the final act. It took about three rings before the lady could mute the phone, but the poor actor just kept pushing right through the scene though. Man did I feel bad for the actor. I would be moritifed if that was my phone. It boggles my mind how rude and just plain stupid people can be.
Wait, is this the same actor who plays Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films? In any case, good for him.