Well this problem is making noise yet again. The sound of the Phone ringing during a show. The audience has been asked by the Front of House staff to make sure their phones are off or at least on silent. Yet often we see someone scrambling through handbags and jackets pockets to silence the ring. All under the glare of fellow audience members and the cast and crew. Then they don’t put it on silent, they just reject that call. Had one the other night that rejected a call. A minute or so later it went of again, with the phone announcing to to the audience that “Sarah had left a message”.

Do we need to treat the audience like school children and ask them to put their phones into a bag at the beginning of a show, and they then can pick them up afterwards.

Surely after all of these years, and multitude of stories about phones ringing in cinemas and theatres, people would get the message. It also seems the older folk within the audience that are the worst offenders. It seems the teens and young adults have the message, but once they are over 35 they think this common courtesy does not apply to them. It nearly as bad as the continue to chatter as houselights go down and the first lighting cue comes up.

Maybe we need to publicly shame them on Facebook. A list shared throughout the land, to humiliate them in front of their children. so what should we do? Pain is not an option.