From Shakespeare to Harry Styles: Have audiences always been rowdy?

So are things really any worse now? “If you’d asked me that before lockdown, I would have said that things have always been thus,” says Sedgman. “As far back as the ancient Greeks people like Plato were complaining about what he called a vicious theatrocracy, where audiences who were previously happy to sit quietly suddenly wanted to use their tongues and start cheering and screaming. And the norm in Shakespeare’s time was to watch performances at the same time as more bodily forms of consumption, such as eating and drinking and talking and socialising.”

The idea that audiences should sit and listen quietly is a relatively recent expectation. Post-pandemic though, Sedgman does think something has changed. “To some extent we’ve been having these debates about live performance, whether the norm should be more quiet and subdued or more active and exuberant for a very long time, but I work with a lot of people throughout the cultural industries, and the message seems to be pretty much unanimous that since lockdown ended, the situation has fundamentally shifted.”

That bears out in a report by the UK’s Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (Bectu) which found that 90% of theatre staff had witnessed bad behaviour – and 70% believed things had got worse since the pandemic.

“It’s not all audiences by any means, but for a lot of people, there’s a growing sense of what I call ‘don’t-tell-me-what-to-do-itis’,” says Sedgman. She believes we’re seeing a breakdown in social contracts – the behavioural norms and rules of engagements that keep us all ticking along together nicely.

People are thirsty for live entertainment again, but increasingly want it on their terms – especially when ticket prices are soaring. “People are coming with actively competing ideals about what they want that experience to be like,” says Sedgman. “Some people want to not be disturbed by others chatting or eating or drinking, or have phones blocking their way. Other people want to maybe take a step backwards to the time when the arts were a more sociable experience. The difficulty is that those pleasures are irreconcilable.”

Why though, would a so-called fan of an artist want to risk hurting them by throwing things? One explanation is that social media has fuelled parasocial relationships – in which fans develop a strong but one-sided connection with celebrities. “Live events are one place where you actually come into that same space with your beloved celebrity,” says Sedgman. “So for some people, perhaps there’s a desire to break through that fourth wall separating them from us and to actively insert your presence into their world.” Giving Pink a giant wheel of Brie or – like one fan recently – throwing your mother’s ashes to her, is certainly one way to make her aware of your existence.