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Inspector Rebus star halts West End play over noise in stalls
Evening Standard27.03.09
DRAMA off-stage in the West End as actor Ken Stott sensationally halted a West End performance of Arthur Miller's play A View From the Bridge because he was being distracted by a group of rowdy teenagers.
Midway through the first half of the play, in which Stott plays a tragic Italian American longshoreman in Forties Brooklyn, the actor could bear the din no longer. Switching from his stage American accent to his native Scottish drawl he demanded that the teacher responsible for the children remove them - or the play would cease.
Up came the house lights and there followed a 15-minute stand-off as negotiations with the guilty parties were opened up.
It seems the audience at the Duke of York's Theatre last night took the side of Stott as they indulged in football-syle chanting of "Out, out, out" until the three culprits and one shamefaced teacher slunk away. Future theatre-goers would be advised to be on their best behaviour. Only last month a telephone trilled in a stall seat directly in front of Stott on stage. He bristled but said nothing. In the second act it happened again during a crucial scene with Stott stage front at a table with a lawyer. This time he glared at the culprit in the audience and snapped: "Is that it now?" There were no more interruptions.
One witness to last night's debacle said: "I've never seen anything like it before. Stott was quite calm in that he didn't swear at the teenagers but he was adamant that unless the offenders left, the play would go no further. It was funny how he switched from an American to Scottish accent to make his point."
Stott, who plays Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus on ITV, has received rave reviews since A View from the Bridge opened on 5 February. It stars Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Hayley Atwell, and is directed by Olivier Award-winning Lindsay Posner.
A spokesman for the theatre tells me: "It happened, but we haven't got anything to say."
Stott once described himself as "a cantankerous old bastard". But he is not alone in standing up to rude theatregoers.
Actor Richard Griffiths once asked a woman audience member to leave the theatre after her mobile phone rang during a performance of The History Boys. She promptly walked out and Griffiths received a standing ovation.
Old Vic artistic director Kevin Spacey has often criticised theatregoers for allowing their mobile phones to ring when the curtain is up - and for eating sweets too loudly.
Reader views (24)
Hooray for Ken Stott. People have no respect for performers any more.
- Gill, London, UK
Dear angry students
I think that as you were in the front row, Ken Stott would not have taken the action he did unless your behaviour was inappropriate and distracting. Your laughter "went on slightly longer" - hoisted by your own petard as my dad used to say. Also it is a pity you can't behave at the theatre as, judging by your grammar and spelling, you would benefit from watching classic plays, brilliantly acted where the language is a joy.
I go to the theatre a lot and saw "Private Peaceful" at the Trafalgar Studios when there were a lot of children in the audience and they behaved impeccably. Someone commented that you are just children - sorry no excuse. If you can't behave properly in the theatre please stay at home in future.
- Sonia, Chislehurst
Fair enough. it's not a comedy. However, jokes were made. the audience did laugh. however, the teenagers laughed slightly longer. wow. what a bad thing to do....
these comments actually make me laugh. you guys need a reality check, to be quite honest. you say we're immature, spoiled brats. but your sitting at home, saying bad things about something you dont know too much about. wow. irony, much?
- Angry Students, London
well done ken, not only is it a great distraction for actors when this selfish behaviour happens it is also very annoying for the rest of the audience.
- Marian, london
well done ken, not only is it a great distraction for actors when this selfish behaviour happens it is also very annoying for the rest of the audience.
- Marian, london
I was sitting in one of the upper circle seats and witnessed the start of the chant of 'out, out, out' and it saddens me that the members of the audience that joined in did not think once of how rude, disrespectful and threatening they were being towards a group of CHILDREN. How can we expect young people to act in a way which is deemed responsible when this is the way they are responded to? Describing young people as 'maggots' just goes to show how much the adults don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Ken Stott- you have lost my respect. A true professional would have allowed the theatre to act upon any complaint, your job was to act upon the stage.
I wonder if he has any regret for the consequences that he caused?
- Therese, London, UK
I saw this excellent play recently and was spellbound, I thought Ken Stott excellent. I notice that the students from the school said they "only laughed".!!!! I don't remember it being a comedy. Another person there on the day said they were distracting. If I had been there I would have dragged them out myself. Good on you Ken.
- Sonia, Chislehurst
We are from this school in question and have to say that everything has been blown completely out of proportion.
We are not brats - they only laughed. and no, the students werent excluded. Reading these comments are ridiculous. Just because we are school children doesnt mean we're brats. And,for your information, we did enjoy the show.
Take that into consideration next time you bash us for something that was blown way out of proportion.
- Angry Students, london
I was sitting in the audience for this performance, directly behind the 'offending school children'. I can honestly say that the behaviour of the group had not been in an issue for me watching the performance and many other members of the audience near me also said that this was the case. Many of them stood up to defend the students against the chorus of 'out out out' which came from the upper circles. I can sympathise with the audience's reaction, but from where they were sitting there is no way that they could have known that in fact it was Ken Stott's behaviour that was out of line.
Whatever the school children did to offend Ken Stott so much cannot have warranted the disproportionate reaction of Stott. I thought that his reaction was totally unprofessional; it ruined the whole atmosphere and drama of the performance.
I couldn't believe the rest of the audience chanting, either. If there was a display of yob behaviour that evening, it was undoubtedly the rest of the audience and their disgusting football-style chanting. I felt ashamed for them.
Well done Ken Stott for making theatre an inclusive experience for young people. Not.
- Rachel, London
Good work Stotty - my heart sinks when I get to a theatre and find a party of school maggots sitting nearby.
- Tom Murphy, London Uk
Bravo Ken Stott !
What an appalling sign of the times that an actor is forced to react in this way.......
So very sad that a teacher has obviously zero authority over his pupils.
- Radz, Expat!, Copenhagen , Denmark.
I was in the audience, and there were lots of schoolchildren there but I didn't notice their teachers. We weren't sat near those that Ken Stott asked to leave, but the noise from the audience was distracting us, so it must have been difficult and irritating for the actors. I applaud Mr Stott. The resulting atmosphere was unpleasant, but if those responsible for the children won't bear that responsiblity, why should everyone else suffer in silence? I'd read Mr Stott's previous interview and thought it was generous of him to say that children were often too young for the play and bored: that doesn't excuse the fact that they seemed not to know or care how to behave in a theatre.
- Alison, London
Quite right too. If people can't behave in a public place then they shouldn't spoil things for others. Good for you Mr Stott. The teacher should be totally ashamed. I'm pleased, but not surprised, that the other members of the audience supported him.
- Jb Hove, hove sussex uk
The teacher had not prepared and could not discipline THREE children?
- Emma, Bognor UK
I was in the audience last night, less than six feet behind the so called 'guilty' school children who were forcibly removed. As far as I (or anyone in the bottom tier of the stalls) could see or hear they did absolutely nothing wrong, and in my view were in fact impecably behaved. Several other members of the audience near to me were vociferous in their defence of them, and when questioned, none of the theatre employees could give a good reason for Ken Stott's extraordinary and irrational reaction. Put simply, he ruined what should have been a brilliant night out, not only for the audience in general, but most importantly for the many members of audience for whom this was their first theatre experience. His performance was not of a great actor, but of a petulent bully. Those school children deserve an apology from Ken Stott, I hope he is man enough to deliver it in person.
- Toby, Hammersmith, Hammersmith
Well done Ken - you saved the evening for the rest of the audience!
- Jo, London
Good for Ken Stott! I agree with most the comments here - except, don't blame the teacher! Why say the teacher was incompetent? How about blaming the parents or indeed the children themselves? Isn't that the kind of comment (it's someone else's fault) that is the problem? I imagine the teacher(s) will have told them to be quiet but you try controlling these twerps! The teenagers in question will no doubt have been excluded from school for their appalling behaviour. What's more they were probably with many other children from their school who didn't make any noise.
And as for why they went and see it in the first place? It's a GCSE set text that's why.
- Lewis, London
Well done Ken - and let's identify the school that these brats came from - AND the teacher who could not control them in a theatre! The adult/child ratio being what it is, the culprits should have been split up, with a teacher/adult between them as soon as they began to play up.
The "stand off" would have been worth seeing - wonder if anyone filmed it on their mobile????
- Scots Lass, Scotland
I refuse to go to the cinema now and only to the theatre under duress. Purely because of the nioise around me. why cant people sait quietly for two hours anymore? why the phones? why the need to eat boiled sweets in crinkly wrappers? what have we become as a society? too scared to tell the hulking teenager that he cant speak on his mobile phone during a performance in case we get knifed.
Unfortunately - and it pains me to say this - it is getting worse and worse by the year.
- Chris, Muswell Hill
Great story. Would hate to be in the audience and get on the wrong side of a tongue-lashing from Rebus. He's right on this one and the fact the audience backed him up speaks volumes.
- Timothy, tooting
At last somebody has courage to repremand bad behavour.
Whose bright idea was it to take children to see this performance, it would not surprise me if the children were bored stiff. The teacher was incompetent.
- Knightrider, Alton, Hants
If I had a hat I'd take it off to Ken.
Could Mr. Stott come around to my local multiplex some time and give a damn good telling-off to the chatterers, popcorn munchers, serial texters, mobile 'phoners and other badly-behaved oiks whose obnoxious presence is causing me to visit the cinema less and less?
- Jargonaut, South London
Bravo to Stott and any other actor who puts these idiots in their place.
- Sarah, Mayfield, UK
Good for him. People pay money to go to the theatre to watch it and listen to the actors (hard enough sometimes depending on where you sit), not to listen to some spoilt brats with no manners.
- Louise, Essex
