The rudest audience moments as Andrew Scott reveals theatre goer used laptop during Hamlet

Andrew Scott has revealed that he halted his performance of Hamlet after witnessing a theatre goer using their laptop in the audience. The star of Fleabag and Sherlock told the Happy Sad Confused film podcast that he was in the middle of Shakespeare's famous 'To be or not to be' soliloquy when he was distracted by a member of the audience tapping away on their computer. Scott said the offending theatre goer "had absolutely no doubts,” about their behaviour.

The Irish actor fumed: “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 f***ing be’. 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.” Scott said he believed the laptop user was sending emails, and it was not until an audience member sitting next to them alerted them to the performance being interrupted that they put the computer away.

Scott's tale of bad theatre etiquette is perhaps no longer the shocking revelation it might have been a decade ago. In recent years actors have become increasingly annoyed by audience members using their mobile phones during performances. Twenty years ago the problem was mainly those who forgot to silence the phones, and so they would interrupt the show when they rang. Back in 2005 the late Harry Potter star Richard Griffiths stopped a performance of his West End play Heroes and came out of character to ask a woman to turn her mobile phone off - after it went off for the third time in a row.

Benedict Cumberbatch

As smartphones have become the norm, and Scott's Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch is among those who have spoken out against theatre-goers taking pictures or filming during the performance. When he himself appeared in Hamlet in 2015, he made an impassioned plea to fans at the stage door.

He told them at the time: "I can see cameras in the auditorium. It may not be any of you here but it's blindingly obvious. It's mortifying and there's nothing that's less supportive or enjoyable as an actor on stage experiencing that. What I really want to do is try and enlist you. I don't use social media and I'd really appreciate it if you did tweet, blog, hashtag the s*** out of this one for me."

James Norton

In early 2023, naked photos of actor James Norton were circulated online after audience members ignored the theatre's request not to film during the play A Little Life. In July, he spoke about the experience on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One.

He said: "There was one unfortunate moment where I was objectified, and the photos were taken and it was put in the tabloid press. What was incredibly encouraging and sort of heartwarming about that experience was the way the community, the theatre community and also just the wider community - people who were aware of it - really came together and said ‘this is just not appropriate at all’. There was very little, it felt like from my point of view, there was very little salivating around that story."

Audiences misbehaving

But it's not just unsubtle use of smartphones during the performances that causes the most problems anymore. Since the COVID pandemic, when people fell into the habit of watching performances streamed into their own homes as they sat on the sofa in their pyjamas, theatre-goers seem to have forgotten how to behave at all. Workers at shows in London's West End recently shared revelations of drunk audience members projectile-vomiting, used condoms being found in the stalls and paramedics being called to treat bleeding theatre-goers after they have been involved in brawls.

Videos emerged on social media in 2023 of riot police entering theatres to remove "rude and abusive" audience members at musicals. Police attendance has been recorded at performances of The Bodyguard in Manchester; Grease in the West End and Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell at London's Peacock Theatre.

A survey among 1,500 members of theatre union Bectu revealed the majority of front-of-house theatre staff reported having directly experienced or witnessed poor audience behaviour. This included acts of physical aggression, threats of violence, sexual harassment or assault, mass brawls, assaults on staff or other members of the audience, defacing or damaging venues and racial slurs.

And it's not just theatre audiences who are misbehaving. In recent years musicians have experienced a rising number of incidents in which objects are aimed at them while performing on stage. Jonas Brother Nick Jonas was hit in the face by two bracelets thrown on stage by fans during a concert in California. In a viral video shared on TikTok, the boyband star can be seen ducking from bracelets and appealing to fans to "stop".

Rapper Cardi B was not so polite when she was hit by a drink thrown from the audience during one of her shows responding my throwing her mic back in retaliation. Harry Styles did not comment when he was hit in the face by a flying object in Austria in the July last year, but a video showed him clearly flinching in pain. And Pink was horrified when an audience member appeared to throw a bag of ashes on stage during a concert in London's Hyde Park.

And most recently actor Florence Pugh was hit in the face by a flying object while at a promotional event for Dune: Part Two Brazil.

Read more: Audience misbehaviour

• Theatres launch campaign to combat worsening audience behaviour (Daily Echo, 2 min read)

• Audiences behaving badly: An epidemic of anti-social behaviour in theatres, concerts and gigs (Sky News, 9 min read)

• Andrew Scott forced to halt Hamlet after spotting audience member on his laptop (Independent, 2 min read)

Watch: Disruptive audience member removed from The Bodyguard musical