In my column last Wednesday, I devoted a few lines to two recent experiences where talkative spectators disturbed the people around them, if not downright disturbed the shows where I was. It seems I’ve touched a very sensitive chord.
Posted at 7:45 p.m.
Many of you have written to tell me that you notice that this phenomenon is growing and that it exasperates you to the highest degree. Some have even told me that they no longer go to the theater or the cinema because of this.
I said that during the show For a one night stand, a clamor came from the back of the floor a few minutes after the start of the performance. A man and a woman, glass in hand, refused to sit down and chatted noisily with each other. When spectators seated behind them asked them to be quiet, they replied by spraying them with the contents of their glasses. Someone went to get security guards who escorted the unruly to the exit.
As a pathetic moment, it’s a summit! You go to see a show hoping to experience magical moments and you are attacked by drunk and unpleasant strangers.
Because the problem with these people, whom entertainment professionals call “toxic spectators”, is that they do not accept being called to order. A reader told me he kindly asked a female viewer to stop texting during Sting’s show. The brightness of the screen bothered people sitting near her. The young woman snubbed the viewer.
Of course, we could blame the alcohol that we can now consume in the rooms. But I believe there is more than that.
We are witnessing a loss of civic-mindedness, a sort of ignorance of the notions of the ritual that surround a show. These spectators, who grew up watching television, no longer know how to behave in a theatre. They think they are in their living room.
They act as in the days of the Elizabethan theater where the spectators drank, ate and spoke to the actors during the performance. The problem is that the codes have evolved.
A reader told me about the disaster she experienced when she went to see Patrick Bruel’s show at the Théâtre St-Denis (note that the tickets cost $90). She had the misfortune to find herself behind two parents who had had the idea of bringing their 4-year-old son. For two hours, the child did not stop moving, talking, passing from one parent to another. Hell!
Going to see a show is now an expensive outing for many people. This evening becomes the “event” of the year. This moment belongs to them. The rest no longer exist.
We could probably start with a sociological study and dissect this phenomenon by analyzing the type of public, show and place (I am told that chatting is very present at the Casino de Montréal). But another experience leads me to believe that it is not necessary to venture into this terrain.
Recently, during the OSM concert with Daniil Trifonov, I experienced something surreal. We had just made the famous announcement to invite people to turn off their cell phones and everything else. The pianist has started playing (the work begins very softly). And there a lady opened her purse and took out a candy which she slowly developed for endless seconds. The whole room could hear the sound of cellophane. It looked like a humorous advertisement for Vicks lozenges.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov during his performance with the OSM on April 20
Was this woman aware that she was destroying magic and imposing her presence on 2000 other people? Human nature fascinates me as much as it saddens me.
What I deplore in the attitude of these talkers and other intruders is that they kill off what the show has best to offer: the symbiosis of a crowd. I like to laugh, I like to be moved, I like to be disturbed and jostled. But I want to feel that at the same time as the others. That’s what we look for when we go to see a show. Otherwise, you might as well hole up at home in front of your aquarium.
Theaters and concert halls have found original ways to remind us of the rules of etiquette before a show. After cell phones and candy, will we now have to tell the spectators that they must refrain from talking during the show? I think we got there!
In 2019, the association of professional show promoters RIDEAU and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) organized a conference whose title was Excuse me, is the show disturbing your conversation?. That says a lot about the scope of this problem.
The phenomenon of the “toxic bystander” has become serious. It is high time to curb it. Otherwise, the entertainment industry is likely to suffer.