Andrew Scott Halted Hamlet Soliloquy After Theatergoer Used Laptop To Email (theguardian.com) 91
David Batty reports via The Guardian: [Andrew Scott], best known as Fleabag's "hot priest," has revealed he halted the renowned soliloquy in Shakespeare's play when an audience member took out a laptop to send emails. The actor decided not to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous theatre etiquette during his run in the 2017 production of Hamlet at London's Almeida theatre, for which he earned an Olivier nomination. Speaking to the Happy Sad Confused film podcast, Scott said there was "no way" he could continue with the speech, and refused to resume until the man put his laptop away.
"When I was playing Hamlet, a guy took out his laptop -- not his phone, his laptop -- while I was in the middle of 'To be or not to fucking be'" said the actor, who said he thought the offending audience member was sending emails. "I was pausing and [the stage team] were like, 'Get on with it' and I was like, 'There's no way.' I stopped for ages." A woman next to the laptop user appeared to alert him to the situation and he finally stopped. "He had absolutely no doubts," added Scott, who was on the podcast to promote his current film All of Us Strangers.
"When I was playing Hamlet, a guy took out his laptop -- not his phone, his laptop -- while I was in the middle of 'To be or not to fucking be'" said the actor, who said he thought the offending audience member was sending emails. "I was pausing and [the stage team] were like, 'Get on with it' and I was like, 'There's no way.' I stopped for ages." A woman next to the laptop user appeared to alert him to the situation and he finally stopped. "He had absolutely no doubts," added Scott, who was on the podcast to promote his current film All of Us Strangers.
I Have Absolutely No Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
with a professional actor protesting such rude behavior. Good for him.
Re:I Have Absolutely No Problem (Score:5, Funny)
Professional, right
Someone falls down - the show must go on
Someone flubs a line the show must go on.
Someone heckles - feelings hurt, show must stop. Police report filed for harassment.
Someone gets caught giving their date a hand-job, they switch congressional districts [rollcall.com] .... :-)
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> Someone heckles - feelings hurt, show must stop. Police report filed for harassment.
I suppose Chris Rock is an uber professional by those standards then.
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I wonder, with an ego that big, how did he manage to squeeze out the back stage door?
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"Someone heckles" they can easily handle, most of the time anyway.
At the Rose, the tradition of "groundlings" talking back to the actors is a real thing.
In Minneapolis there's a (beautiful, brilliant) group called "Ten Thousand Things" that stages classic theater in places like prisons and rehab facilities, as well as putting on shows for the general public. The circumstances -- you can't dim the lights in a prison, and the space is often something like a modest conference room -- means incredibly immediate
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> Well a tantrum is a tantrum
tantrum
noun
an uncontrolled outburst of anger and frustration, typically in a young child.
I don't think you're using your words correctly.
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Anyone who ever worked in a customer-facing position knows very well that some people very obviously never grow up.
Re:I Have Absolutely No Problem (Score:5, Informative)
What he did was very unprofessional you could have picked any other descriptor but that one.
No, he was not. And he's not alone. A multitude of actors and actresses have stopped their performance or done other things because of rude people.
Actress takes phone from audience member [people.com] who was texting entire show.
Actor stops performance due to ringing phone [memphisflyer.com], after asking woman to turn phone off.
Hugh Jackman stops performance and calls out audience member [reuters.com] whose phone was ringing during performance.
Kevin Spacey stops performance [closerweekly.com] to call out audience member whose phone was ringing.
Benedict Cumberbatch stopped a live reading [cbsnews.com] and called out people for taking pictures.
Actor takes phone from audience member [independent.co.uk] while they are on their phone during performance.
A multitude of complaints [npr.org] about rude audience members and cell phones.
Band deliberately interrupts performance [cbsnews.com] at particular song because that's when the cell phones come out.
Conductor stops concert [phillymag.com], TWICE, because of cell phones.
Some theaters are locking up cell phones [nbcnews.com] during the performance.
It is not unprofessional to call out people who are interrupting your work. If your cell phone, or in this case laptop, is so important, don't bother coming to show. There are others who will gladly take your spot.
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You forgot the time Axl Rose stormed off stage because someone was filming. A riot resulted. They're trying to stop the
Re:I Have Absolutely No Problem (Score:5, Funny)
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I don't remember that, but I was at a Black Crowes show when Chris Robinson threatened to stop the show and went off on someone in the audience who was apparently throwing stuff on stage.
And there's Steve Kimock ...
"Hey, I don't want to interrupt you in the back there, but if you want to hear a really cool song, shut the fuck up!.
"Fucking shut the fuck up! Seriously, man, it's fucking rude, get your money back and go home I don't care, shut the fuck up!" [youtube.com]
The majority of the audience seemed to approve.
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The audience person was rude, no question, but he was not interrupting anything, unlike a ringing cellphone. Here the actor was doing all the interrupting all on his own, thus the unprofessionalism. And the fact that he is not alone doing this is not an excuse either.
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Just distracting everyone else in the audience around him with his big glowing screen and tap-a-tap on the keyboard
And that's a problem for the theater folks to deal with, not the actors. The spectators at the other end of the theater were not affected until the actor chose to interrupt.
That's fine is it?
The previous poster just said something about this: just because someone does something bad, is not an excuse for doing something bad in return. And actually worse, since 1) the audience member's "distraction" is not the same as the actor's "interruption", and 2) "around him" is not the same as "the whole audience".
You fucking moron. It's not a fucking office.
Because the previous p
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My city's arena downtown has some spendy seating options where you can spend the entire time eating, drinking and otherwise ignoring whoever is playing sportsball du jour or putting on a concert. Of course, an arena is a far less intimate venue, so the athletes/entertainers really can't clearly see and pitch a fit over the people who are there for the booze rather than the show.
Now don't get me wrong, people who disturb a show with a noisy phone or have their screen brightness cranked to 11 should be put i
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Pretty much. My experience attending a couple of these shindigs has been more or less "There's food, booze, a couple of presentations as well. Oh, and some sort of game is going on below, not sure if it's important or not. Watch if you care."
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Our company used to have one and would give it away to employees who won that week's drawing. Even if I didn't win it I'd sometimes get to use it because the winner couldn't or didn't want to go. I'd load up on chicken wings and enjoy the game.
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I'd load up on chicken wings and enjoy the game.
You took boardgames along? Now that's a good idea, stops you getting bored while you're there.
This issue goes WAAAAY back. (Score:1)
Here is actual footage of none other than Alexander Graham Bell being an absolute DICKHEAD by taking a god damn phone call during a play:
https://vimeo.com/280126780 [vimeo.com]
Seriously, what kind of an asshole casually engages in this type of public fuckery?
Re:This issue goes WAAAAY back. (Score:5, Funny)
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It is not unprofessional to call out people who are interrupting your work.
go and read about how rambunctious the audience was in the outdoor theatres of 1600 era london, then tell us again why we need pay actors north korean levels of adulation.
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It is not unprofessional to call out people who are interrupting your work. If your cell phone, or in this case laptop, is so important, don't bother coming to show. There are others who will gladly take your spot.
This, given how much a theatre ticket costs these days you'd want to bloody enjoy it and not waste time faffing about on your phone, an advance ticket for something like Les Mis in the West End is £50, then there's getting to the west end which can easily be another 50 quid in itself. Even seeing a middling comic at a local commuter town theatre is £30 these days.
Am I the only one who thinks that if you really need to email, you should excuse yourself from the theatre and do it in the lobby?
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Agreed. Good for him. Who the hell brings a laptop to a Shakespeare play?
Though we shouldn't be surprised at this rudeness. It's now becoming part of every day life. No consideration for others. It's all about me.
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If the patron was disturbing others, remove him from the theater. An asshole makes people wait for the boor to stop on his own.
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> Spoken like the sort of jackass who would ruin everyone's enjoyment of a play by taking out a laptop and forcing everyone to deal with the glaringly bright screen in the middle of a darkened theater.
He was using a "dark theme" you insensitive clod.
Re: I Have Absolutely No Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
1. There was no "tantrum." He just paused the soliloquy until the guy put the laptop away.
2. In a darkened theater, having a bright screen opened up in your field of vision is distracting. For you to call stopping this behavior "just as selfish" is idiotic. The rest of us have bought tickets and carved out time to see the guy's performance, not to watch somebody fiddle on their laptop.
3. Plus it's a key moment of the the play, and actors work hard to get this speech right.
4. As a general rule if you lack the self-discipline to sit still and pay attention, don't go to the kind of performance that demands that.
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I'm quite amazed that the actor could even see that laptop. Usually those spotlights have the same effect as having oncoming traffic at night that forgets to switch to passing light: You're totally blinded to anything going on in the darkness around it.
Re: I Have Absolutely No Problem (Score:2)
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And I'm sure the people around this guy didn't want to listen to his clickety-click typing when they were trying to focus on the play. People need to learn some self-control and respect for those around them.
Not the time to fight Fire with Fire (Score:1)
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Exactly! That's where the theatre management needs to step in and enforce their rules. Simply removing the guy would be disruptive, so if you're going to intrude into the performance anyway, might as well go all in and do what you suggest, then let the cast pick up where they left off...or maybe a minute earlier in the play.
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But I also guarantee the dickhead that thought it was acceptable to bust out a laptop during a performance won't do it again.
Possibly true but sadly knowing some people it is far from guaranteed, but how many of the audience also thought that it was no longer worth going to expensive performances that could be easily disrupted for everyone in the theatre in this way? People using laptops and phones during performances need to be stopped but there are better, less disruptive ways to do this - like removing the audience member - that don't spoil the performance for everyone else and that should be the primary concern of a _profess
Re: Not the time to fight Fire with Fire (Score:2)
Re:Not the time to fight Fire with Fire (Score:5, Insightful)
See my longer response about other actors and actresses stopping performances.
I was at a showing of A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater many years ago, and there are signs explicitly saying you are not allowed to record the performance. The playbill has a warning not to record the performance. There is an announcement before the opening not to record the performance. There is an announcement at intermission not to record the performance.
As the play is coming to an end, guess what happens. The guy two rows in front of us pulls out his camera and starts recording. One of the ushers rushed down and told him to turn his camera off, that he wasn't allowed to record the show. He argued with her. Fortunately her being there interrupted his recording so whatever he was trying to get was ruined.
As to stopping the show, why not? Call out the person. There are a multitude of notices about turning off phones or not recording. If you can't, as an adult, follow basic courtesies, you deserve to be called out.
Better ways to stop recordings (Score:2)
There are a multitude of notices about turning off phones or not recording.
There are better, technical ways to prevent casual phone recordings by idiots. CCD devices are quite sensitive to near-visible IR wavelengths that our eyes cannot see. Put a few bright sources of those around the stage pointing at the audience and no casual phone recordings will work.
It's always better to outwit the idiots than to stoop to their level.
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Re: Better ways to stop recordings (Score:2)
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There are better, technical ways to prevent casual phone recordings by idiots.
There are no better ways to change antisocial behavior than making people who engage in antisocial acts feel uncomfortable in society until they stop. Your solution solves it for one venue, temporarily. Ours solves it across the board, eventually.
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There are no better ways to change antisocial behavior than making people who engage in antisocial acts feel uncomfortable in society until they stop.
Yes, if you can do that without making the disruption worse then I'd agree. However, if you can't do that without making the situation much worse by magnifying the disruption hugely then no.
Ours solves it across the board, eventually.
Not really. Firstly, some people are immune to this sort of pressure which is why prisons exist. Secondly, if you disrupt things for the rest of the audience enough many may decide that it is not worth paying to attend a live performance. True, this is a solution of sorts since if there are no theatres there will be no
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Secondly, if you disrupt things for the rest of the audience enough many may decide that it is not worth paying to attend a live performance.
Eventually they will start doing their civic duty and ejecting those people who disrupt the show with their selfishness for you.
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The people around said idiot probably appreciated not having to listen to his *clickety click* typing during the play too.
He went that way. => (Score:2)
[Andrew Scott], best known as Fleabag's "hot priest," ...
The fox is still looking for him.
Mightier! (Score:5, Funny)
Behold the keyboard, mightier than the pen.
Patti Lupone... (Score:2)
...thanks you for your service.
https://www.theguardian.com/st... [theguardian.com]
It could have been worse (Score:5, Funny)
At least the guy with his laptop out wasn't jacking off some dude in the next seat.
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At least the guy with his laptop out wasn't jacking off some dude in the next seat.
Maybe that sort of behavior is reserved for Beetlejuice.
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Maybe that sort of behavior is reserved for Beetlejuice.
Somehow I actually managed to miss this bit of political news and got some decidedly NSFW search results attempting to find it. So, to anyone who is scratching their heads on the reference and doesn't want their own little "rule 34" adventure, here's what that was about. [newsweek.com]
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Maybe that sort of behavior is reserved for Beetlejuice.
Congresscritter-juice? Oh that works in so many ways.
Hello, you'll have to speak up, I'm in a theatre! (Score:1)
I saw someone answer a phone call in the middle of a movie once and start having a loud conversation, and "someone" threw a bottle at their head. Was funny as fuck. There's so little light in there that they didn't see it coming. Plus, what are they going to do? Keep talking and wait for a second bottle? Go around and ask everyone who threw it? They shut up pretty quickly.
That's great (Score:4, Interesting)
while I was in the middle of 'To be or not to fucking be'
He should say it exactly like that. I bet Shakespeare would approve.
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Although it was handled with displeasure, it would've been cooler to teach the transgressor a lesson with a bit of humor and attitude:
"Hey you, in the back with the fucking laptop, I'm right here in the middle of 'to be or not to fucking be'. So can you please take your glowing magic box outside or do it later? I'm trying to emphasize opportunity life costs through Elizabethan existentialism right fucking here. And although I don't mock untreated mental illness, rudeness makes me want to kill myself in a
Surprised there's any audience etiquette anymore (Score:5, Informative)
Considering how rude most people are, you can't even exit an elevator anymore without some young twat glued to their phone trying rush in and creating a traffic jam. Oh and you're the "rude" one trying to pass someone on an escalator who takes up the whole thing with their suitcase or body rather than standing to the right like normal, stationary people.
The implicit social contract of being an audience member is respecting the talent, risk of criticism, time, and person of the performer. Busting out distraction devices or leaving across the stage mid song is just damn rude. Either be present or go elsewhere.
For this readership: Moriarty. (Score:3)
Rather than "the hot priest", I suspect more /. readers would recognize him from his role as Moriarty in Sherlock.
This is better (Score:1)
This violin player stops his performance and improvises around the Nokia ringtone tune [youtu.be]
Now that's a class act compared to the actor stopping mid-sentence and sulking.
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Yeah, I totally agree: the guy with the laptop was utterly crass.
However, the actor stopping and waiting for the dude to stop being an asshole wasn't a great response I reckon. I mean he was totally in his right to do it, but it would have been so much better if he had voiced his protest with a witty remark - like for example saying "To be or not to be in an Excel sheet, that is the question!" The guy would have been annihilated with shame.
A bit like Jacob Collier regularly does [youtu.be] in his concerts.
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While I would also like to see the actor deliver an impromptu "to be an asshole or to not be an asshole" speech, about how whether 'tis nobler to pull out your laptop in the middle of a pivotal moment in a play or to provide a handjob to your date, I don't require that they do so.
What I want most is for anyone who does anything so rude as emailing during a play to be yeeted with prejudice, but we don't always get what we want.
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This violin player stops his performance and improvises around the Nokia ringtone tune [youtu.be]
Or how about the French pianist in the 1920s who was getting heckled by the audience during his performances? At his next performance, he pulled a pistol out of his pocket and laid it on top of the piano as he sat down to perform. Strangely, no one heckled him during that performance.
How nice of him (Score:2)
He interrupted his playing to let the man finish writing his mail and not miss a moment of it. So thoughtful, I wish more actors were as accommodating.
so what? (Score:2)
Apparently the guy was not that interested in the performance. I can certainly relate to that.
But did he disturb the performance in any way, e.g. did his laptop or he imself make noises or block the view of other visitors?
If not, why care?
Would he have reacted in a simliar way if the guy had removed his hearing aid and closed his eyes?
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If the actor, on stage in a theatre, could see the laptop then it was guaranteed to be disturbing others.
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A laptop has a fucking screen. Every people sitting behind him and on the sides had the giant white rectangle in their field of vision. You bet it is distracting for everyone.
Would he have reacted in a simliar way if the guy had removed his hearing aid and closed his eyes?
If he slept through the play I could not care less. Unless he snored like hell. If you're in a theater, please make sure you do not disturb everyone.
modern day poncery (Score:2)
the big baby wouldnt have lasted 2 minutes if hed have had to do it in shakespeares time then, and he calls himself a shakesperian, bah
Maybe the guy was on-call? (Score:2)
That's when I would enter a theater with a laptop to begin with,
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Perhaps so.
The least disruptive thing to do, and the thing you would do if you cared about other people, is to not go to the theater when you're on call, and you're at risk of disrupting a live public performance for others.
The second-least disruptive thing would have been to slink out and do your email someplace at the back, in the hall, whatever.
If you're on call, don't get a seat where you will disrupt others, that's just being selfish.
"But what about that person getting to see the show?", you might ask.
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I certainly stay put at home when on call. Unless it's a company event.
What they should have done... (Score:2)
Was announced, at the beginning, that anyone using their phones, etc during the performance will be ejected with no refund.