“Speak clearly and don’t bump into the furniture” – so goes Noël Coward’s timeless advice to actors. But for those treading the boards of London’s West End this weekend, there is a new peril: rowdy, smartphone-wielding audiences.
From heckling and screaming to livestreaming and even copulating during shows, theatres have recently been faced with rising levels of disruptive behaviour.
The problem is so grave that theatres are being urged to limit how much alcohol is served to audiences, after a new survey revealed that more than three-quarters of ushers have experienced violence, aggression or harassment from theatregoers in the past year.
The union Bectu, which published the statistics, said it had identified a “shocking scale of poor audience behaviour” and partly laid the blame on “at-seat alcohol”.
The survey collected responses from more than 5,500 creative workers. Of those working in theatre and live events (1,051), about a third (31%) said they had personally experienced antisocial behaviour, violence, aggression or harassment in the past year, including 29% working in theatres specifically.
The union said front of house staff were bearing the brunt, with 77% saying they had experienced such bad behaviour in the past year.
Meanwhile, a majority of respondents across front of house, technical, backstage and admin roles said things had gotten worse over the last five years. The survey showed that 71% of theatre workers were more likely to say this (compared with 48% working in live events).
Philippa Childs, head of Bectu, said: “This summer, hundreds of thousands of people will have been or be heading to the theatre or to live events, and most will have a great time. Unfortunately, our research shows that increasing numbers of them will behave badly, treating staff like dirt and subjecting them to unacceptable abuse.”
The figures come two years after the union revealed how front-of-house staff had experienced racial slurs, public urination and physical assaults, with half considering leaving the industry as a result.
At the time, Bectu launched its Safer Theatres Charter, calling on venue management to take a zero-tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour.
Childs said it was “doubly disappointing” that “very little seems to have changed” in the intervening time. “Across the country people are facing regular aggression and abuse simply for carrying out their jobs. This is wholly unacceptable and we urge venues and industry bodies to commit to working with us to tackle this endemic issue.
“Everyone has the right to a safe and respectful workplace and with the sector facing a chronic skills shortage our findings should sound alarm bells. We are calling on theatres to have a zero tolerance approach to bad behaviour and ensure security is sufficient to deal with the problem.”
She added: “The advent of at-seat alcohol may also be playing a part and we urge theatres to look at whether a reasonable limit on these sales would have an impact so that people can continue to have a good time without things going too far.”
Audience behaviour at live events particularly worsened in the years after Covid. Writing in the Guardian, the comedian Dani Johns said that after the lockdown restrictions lifted and live audiences returned to clubs, there had been an uptick in the amount of abuse and harassment she received.
Meanwhile, West End actor Marisha Wallace said: “I was in Dreamgirls and there would be fights in the audience. It was wild. It happened so often that they had to get more security and put extra signs up that said: ‘Don’t sing, don’t dance.’”
More serious incidents have included police being called to Curve in Leicester in 2023, following reports that a member of staff had been assaulted.
The same year, a Manchester performance of The Bodyguard was unable to continue after staff at the Palace theatre, who were attempting to quieten an audience member singing loudly, were greeted with “unprecedented levels of violence”. Police were also called then.
Other incidents of disruptive behaviour occurred during performances of Bat Out of Hell and The Drifters Girl in London, as well as Jersey Boys in Edinburgh. Meanwhile the Royal Opera House handed a lifetime ban to someone who heckled a child singer, and the newsletter Popbitch and the comedian Tom Houghton have each reported couples having sex during performances