"Warning: May Contain Babies"

[Ms Thrifty]

This amused me. It's the warning you see against matinee performances at the Rex Cinema, Berkhamsted (a lovely, old-fashioned cinema with a great programme and special events). Mind you, I would - just - prefer the behaviour of babies in screenings to that of some adults at the theatre, since it was reported yesterday that some London theatres are to employ security staff to deal with audience misbehaviour. One man apparently urinated against the stage during a performance and I certainly haven't witnessed anything quite that bad in a cinema. What's the worst thing you've come across?

[EthanRunt]

Worst thing I've come across?
I could write a list of films for a joke.
I've only suffered stupid kids running around and being caught without tickets.

[bevvy]

The worst behaviour that I have witnessed at a theatre was years ago on a school trip to see Sir Lawrence Olivier in The Merchant of Venice. He was in full flow when a woman got up and started ranting at him - I can't remember all of it but I remember her saying "Damn you Olivier, how can you say such things with nuns present!". She was hastily removed from the auditorium. Needless to say - this spectacle was enjoyed by us schoolkids much more than the play itself.

The worst behaviour that I have encountered at the cinema was, as previously mentioned on the old site, the "cottaging" activities at the old Biograph cinema in Victoria.

[Ms Thrifty]

Strangely I think I've also seen worse/more memorable incidents in the theatre than the cinema. Maybe it's because you expect higher standards at the theatre, or that because it's live and real, bad behaviour has more impact. On a school trip to see the RSC at Stratford-On-Avon I recall someone being spectacularly sick in an aisle, mid-performance (presumably the boy was trying to leave and didn't make it), but what do you expect if you take a coach-load of teenagers and leave them to wander around the town unsupervised before the play? And I expect the poor actors were used to things of that sort. And yes, the behaviour peculiar to the Biograph remains the most unusual and distracting I've witnessed in a cinema: it was like musical chairs. I wonder if this happens anywhere else, now the Biograph is no more?

[cardiff2007]

Oh i have been to many cinema screenings where the teenagers have acted more like babies and the young ones have acted more like adults who drags up these teens i don't know. Lately i have found that when i have pa*d my own dosh out to see a film i get subjected to an appaling catalouge of annoying behaviour by these teens which can be anything from swearing to flashing mobile phones in the eyes of cinema goers, i miss the old days where the usherettes used to sit in the cinema and keep an eye out for annoying kids etc and then just shoot them out if they got up to mischeif.

[Ms Thrifty]

In pre-multiplex days, when there was just one big auditorium and the fire exit doors led straight to the exterior, I can recall that one teen from a group would p*y to see the film, then let all his (they were always boys) friends in by opening the fire exit. This was obviously a regular occurrence as the cinema staff were on the lookout and there were some noisy scenes when people were caught in the act.