I mentioned in an earlier blog that we had a family outing to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Liverpool Empire.
Phantom is a family thing. I took my husband to see it years ago at Manchester and he fell in love with it. I must admit it was more of a slow burn for me, but when the DVD came out, after several viewings I found that I loved it too as did my boys.
Three years ago, me and my husband went down to London for the weekend to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (sans children). We had a wonderful weekend, stayed in a fab hotel by the Tower of London, had a champagne ride on the London Eye and revisited some of my old haunts from when I used to live in the city.
But the highlight for me was going to see Phantom there. I
’d booked seats four rows back from the front of the stalls. I had wondered whether we’d get neck ache like you do when you are too close to the front at the cinema, but it was completely the opposite. We were so close to the drama on stage we actually felt as we were part of it, especially as the massive chandelier spent most of the show hanging right above our heads.
Last year Phantom came back to Manchester and I wanted to take the whole family to see it, but in the end I couldn’t get tickets. Well I could have, but the seats cost a fortune for the four of us, and they were so far back, it would like have been sitting outside the theatre.
Then it went on to Liverpool, and although the tickets weren’t cheap, they were at least in the circle with a half decent view, and the boys were really excited about going, which really made the night for me.
Whilst the production was fantastic, because we had been spoilt the last time we saw it, this time I did feel rather removed from the action. But what really let it down, for me, were the three noisy people sitting right behind us. They chatted and laughed all the way through the first half, so that I could barely hear the speaking parts.
I began to get really annoyed and did a few hard stares behind me which worked for a while, but soon the annoyance returned. I really wanted to say something but kept remembering a time when my friend had spoken out at something similar, and ended up having to leave the theatre herself half way through the show when the people causing the disturbance turned nasty.
Eventually though I couldn’t stand it any more and turned round and politely but firmly asked them to be quiet.
It didn’t go down too well, and apparently they were making nasty gestures behind me, but at least they shut up.
I raced out to the bar at the interval and wasn’t looking forward to going back afterwards. But when we got back to our seats they were gone. And other people around me thanked me for being so outspoken and wished they had done the same.
The second half was much more enjoyable, especially as I was buoyed up by the fact that I had stuck up for what I believed was right.
Not sure I would have had the guts to do it though if I had been on my own.
Theatre tickets arent cheap though, we had been looking forward to it for weeks, and I can’t understand why people would pay that price for tickets and then completely disregard, not only the production they were going to see, but also the feelings of others around them.
Perhaps its just me, but I was brought up to have respect and consider other people’s feelings.
No comments:
Post a Comment