The dread curse of the mobile phone strikes the theatre again – and it has left Rosamund Pike exceedingly irate. Yet wouldn’t you too be more than somewhat narked if you had spent 100 interval-free minutes haring about on stage and giving your all as a barrister in a highly charged legal/moral drama, only to have the climax of the action ruined by the lit-up phone screen of a witless audience member sending texts?
If I, a mere spectator, were sitting near this disruptive idiot I’d be furious, so it’s hard to imagine the internal rage levels of Pike, who recently won both Olivier and Critics’ Circle Awards for her lead role in Suzie Miller’s drama Inter Alia. In a recent performance, Pike returned to the stage after the play ended and accused this unidentified texting viewer of breaking the all-important bond between actor and audience. Pike said that she had “given her all” to the performance and felt let down by the disturbance.
Bloody good for her, I say – and I adored her withering final comment that she hoped the person in question was a doctor who had just saved someone’s life. I hope the texter, who I could virtually guarantee is not a doctor (I have theatre-loving medical friends who would never dream of behaving in such a crass, not to mention deeply unprofessional, manner) will squirm with embarrassment for days, or ideally months, to come.
