Dear Prudence,
My partner and I went to a local smallish theatre in a major city to see a production (one of those “Shakespeare-but-someone-is-drunk” type deals) as a date, something we don’t get to do often. Of the 200 seats or so in a horseshoe formation, about 120-140 were filled. The play was short, only about an hour, and while it had a small bit of audience participation, it was not meant to be a raucous back-and-forth affair. We could tell, by their enthusiasm and seeming in-depth knowledge of the play, that there were a few folks there (maybe 10 in total sprinkled in two or three small groups throughout) who had either seen the show before and were big fans, or were friends with the performers outside of the play. The issue lies with one individual seated immediately behind us who we think was part of that group. In particular, their laugh…goodness gracious, their laugh. I do want to preface this with A) I understand that laughter is the utmost expression of joy, and B ) we all deserve some joy now and again, especially in our current climate. That being said:
It wasn’t just loud and piercing, it was alarmingly obtrusive and frequent. The audience member would laugh at odd times too (like during the dialogue that was purely expository, not humorous nor intended to be), and with the play being based on Shakespeare, there can be rather elegant and intricate language and wordplay that requires a somewhat close ear. The patrons in front of us did turn once or twice in response to a particularly off-time outburst, but not to where the source party behind us noticed. Neither my partner nor I wanted to get up and move (because we felt it would be obvious why we moved to worse seats and we absolutely did not want to embarrass anyone, nor did we want to be a distraction to the performers), and because the play was only an hour, there was no intermission to quietly find another location where it may not be noticed that we moved. It legitimately made it difficult to hear and enjoy the play, and because the laughter was so startling, it actually removed some of the suspension of disbelief required for a performance like that when you almost jump in your chair after a mundane line reading results in an air horn blast 18 inches behind your ear.
The cast only seemed to react to it once, toward the end of the show, but I can’t imagine it wasn’t something they were acutely aware of (leading me to believe this may be a repeat patron or even a friend). I’ll also note it wasn’t like they were otherwise chatty or distracting besides said laughter. We said nothing and as a result, didn’t really enjoy the experience nearly as much as I know we would have with different seats. My question is (and I’m sure we’re about to get DRAGGED), is it EVER OK to politely ask someone to try to pipe down so we can hear what is going on, even if their noise comes from pure glee, and how do you do so? I would never want to take away someone’s enjoyment of something they paid for, but…here we are, having not said a word, and as a result, did not enjoy something we paid for.
—Entirely Too Much Ado