Is having a snack whilst watching a show is a good thing, or too distracting for everyone else? Musical Theatre Appreciation Society's Dawn Bush gives her take on the current issue of eating in the theatre.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a chomper and chewer, I love my food. I don’t go quite as far as Dawn French in The Vicar of Dibley's Christmas Day special, but if I go out for a coffee, the chances are I will choose to have a cake as well. I love all of it: chinese, burgers, a posh steak; I have even been caught on the train home furtively eating a pasty or a cheese toastie. Now I will admit it’s accompanied by a slight sense of embarrassment that other people are sharing my supper through the medium of their nostrils. But I find myself wondering if I’m actually as bad as I thought I was, because never would I dream of taking food into a theatrical performance.
This murky secret has been hiding in the dark underbelly of London theatres for some time, but seems to have reached epidemic proportions over the last five years or so. Up until my late 20s, I was an avid theatre goer, especially to musicals. The problem then was people rustling sweet wrappers - bad enough, but not terminal. Going back to my love of theatre after a long, financially induced break, I was horrified to find out at least one theatre actually takes food orders at the interval, bringing hot snacks to people in their seats.
As recently reported in the Radio Times magazine, Imelda Staunton has tackled this sordid habit head on:
“I don’t understand this obsession with having to eat or drink something at every moment of the day.” she says.
In answer to the question “Should eating in theatres be banned?” her reply is a resounding “Definitely.”
Now, I don’t understand how this problem has come about (it’s beyond my understanding). But the question remains:
How would such a ban be enforced?
Can we get the theatres on side?
Do we ban everything, even sweets and bottles of water?
Do theatre conduct bag searches?
Perhaps the ordering and delivering of food in the interval was an attempt to bring it under control, I don’t know. But when my other hald asked if I wanted something, ready to pander to my every whim despite his obvious distate, I replied back, "Absolutely not!" in complete horror. Going to see a musical is a rare, expensive treat for us, mostly because I’m spoilt and like top price seats, so why would I want to ruin the experience?
I also remember watching in fascination as a person two seats along from me in Groundhog Day opened his box of smelly chinese noodles and calmly started eating them. I turned my head away in disgust, only to see a full blown McDonald’s being enjoyed by a family five rows in front of us. I suspect the theatre management must be ambivalent. After all, if they sell overpriced food to their patrons, it’s bringing in extra revenue. I guess the key thing in addressing this problem is to start by getting them on side. Perhaps the ordering & delivering of food in the interval was an attempt to bring some kind of control to the problem, but in my opinion it sends out a loud message - eating while you watch our musical is perfectly ok.
Now I have to admit, on the upside I was happily surprised that I didn’t have to down a glass of wine in 10 minutes during the interval, but I’m not in favour of those premises that give you the whole bottle if you buy two glasses. Don’t tempt me! Give me a small glass that I can finish in the interval without ripping out my throat and I’ll try my best next time to get to your premises early enough to enjoy a leisurely glass - maybe even, like at the start of Once, on stage with the musicians.
Maybe we theatregoers need to make a stand. Lobby the theatres. Encourage them to ban food in the auditorium. Suggest to them that a list of theatre etiquette should be sent out with tickets. No hot food. No noisy wrappers. Please put unwrapped sweets in a box. Switch off mobile phones before entering the auditorium. No drink, apart maybe from water, allowed in the auditorium. Translate it into different languages. Hire vigilant ushers.
Because if not, who knows? Will we soon be seeing drop-down tables on the backs of our theatre seats?
