Audience participation

I have recently had the opportunity of watching a number of shows from the view of an audience member and am distressed by what I see, or probably more accurately by what I hear. For ages now I have not gone to a public cinema, preferring to watch movies either on an aeroplane whilst whiling away the long hours between long-haul stops or shorter minutes between champagne refills, or else in the comfort of my own home watching Netflix, Apple TV or terrestrial TV. The age of popcorn being munched and fizzy drinks being slurped has long not appealed to my enjoyment of watching other people's performances on the silver screen. At least though the performance is a recorded one and though disrespectful, the performer would have been unaware of that disrespect, even if others were. But now, this age of armchair front-room viewing has hit the West End in a big way and that disrespect is felt by live performers. I saw a West End show recently where I would estimate more than half the audience took either sweets and drinks into the auditorium and consumed them while watching the performance. The sound of hissing fizzy drinks cans being opened competed severely with the sound of quiet contemplative songs being sung by talented performers giving their all. it was almost as though there were lots of suspended cymbals being stroked and I am certain artists don't want added orchestration during their big solo numbers. I certainly don't. The sound of sweet wrappers being unwrapped! Why should I have to listen to this while someone is giving their all on the stage? This of course then permeates further. People are so convinced they are sitting in their sitting room watching their own private TV, they now have conversations with their neighbours. Sitting, watching Phantom the other day there were a number of conversations going on around me and despite others trying to quieten them down, this seemed to have no affect on the perpetrators. Worse is when an audience member can't sit still for the first half of a show and insists on getting up and going either to the rest rooms or to take/make a phone call, thereby making sure everyone in their row and those behind are disturbed. Phone calls! Don't get me started on these devices where people are unaware where the off switch of a mobile telephone is. The glow from the screen when people are checking their Facebook status or Twitter feed or whatever the latest social networking craze is, is a light show all of its own. I switch my phone off when I enter a theatre, concert hall or place of performance, or it is left behind. Of course, audience members are not solely to blame. Theatre owners are keen to capitalise on maximum revenue and part of that revenue is drinks, sweets and food. This only used to be available before the show and in the interval. Now, due to demand from the audience it is available for the whole show, from beginning to end, and very possibly big money is being made from bar takings. But at what cost to the enjoyment of lots of audience members? How soon before this "way of life" during any sort of cultural entertainment enters concert halls and opera houses?