From America comes news of a fresh phase in the war between mobile users and misusers in places of entertainment. It has been reported in a recent edition of Variety that at a Hollywood festival screening of Mr Turner, Mike Leigh’s acclaimed film of the life of the painter JMW Turner, a woman using a mobile phone was asked repeatedly by a man in the row behind to switch it off.
When, after a few minutes, she had failed to do so, he tapped her on the shoulder, he prompted an unexpected response. Turning round, she sprayed a stream of mugger-deterrent into his face. The man immediately left the auditorium, and shortly afterwards the woman was escorted out.
Mr Turner has been showing this month in Edinburgh, where a set of Turner’s watercolours are a cherished possession of the National Gallery ofScotland.
Though it was not a performance of the finale of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony that was marred by the incident, as recently happened in New York, it seems that in America such happenings are getting nastier. Or was the woman to be commended for her handling of what she clearly regarded as an invasion of her rights?
16 November 2014
I sometimes get extremely annoyed when I hear people - usually Americans - talk about their individual rights and freedoms. All seem to forget the words of Eleanor Roosevelt who rightly said that freedom comes with responsibilities. One responsibility surely is being mindful of the freedoms enjoyed by others. The freedom of 99+% to sit quietly and peacefully in a concert hall, a theatre, a cinema or other place of leisure/entertainment should not be infringed by one selfish, arrogant individual spending time on her mobile phone!
ReplyDeleteConductors have sometimes stopped orchestras when mobile phones have been ringing in the audience, Alan Gilbert and William Christie being just two. Others have stopped because of persistent coughing which I agree can be a detriment to the enjoyment of any concert. I remember LSO concerts in 1970 carried an advertisement on the front page of concert programmes saying, "Did you realise that the sound of a single cough during a performance is as loud as a French horn being played fortissimo? Please have a handkerchief ready to cover your mouth if you think you may need to cough." Simple and very much to the point. Sadly I know of no orchestra anywhere whose programmes still carries such advice.
In today's technological times, though, surely the answer is even simpler. Places of entertainment should be permitted by law to bar the signals for any transmitting/receiving device. That completely solves the problem, although it may raise others, alas - especially with the freedom of speechers!