Bosses at the Edinburgh Playhouse have branded audience behaviour ‘unacceptable’ after staff members were punched and spat on.
This comes just days after brawl erupted within the audience during a performance of the hit West End musical The Jersey Boys, in what appeared to be a ‘full-on fist fight’. Now, Theatre Director Colin Marr has taken to social media to address behaviour.
In a string of tweets, he wrote: “Enough is enough.
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“I am disgusted and angry with the unacceptable audience behaviour that my team has had to endure in recent weeks. They have been verbally and physically assaulted by a small number of audience members while trying to do their job.
“Two weeks ago one of my staff was punched. This week one of them was pushed and spat on.
“This is becoming far too regular an occurrence - not just in our theatre but in venues across the UK. There is a very small minority of people who come to our theatre and choose to sing, dance and talk throughout the show in a manner that disturbs others.
“They either don’t know, or don’t care, how much this spoils their fellow audience members’ experience. When one of my team asks them politely to stop they become verbally abusive and, in some cases, physical.
“This is not acceptable. I am asking that when you come to our venue that you are considerate towards your fellow audience members and our members of staff so that we can all enjoy the wonderful entertainment on the stage.
“Please be in no doubt that if you are abusive towards our staff you will be asked to leave, and if you are threatening, intimidating or physically abusive we will call the police and you will be banned from our theatre and all ATG Venues.”
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Following The Jersey Boys incident, a police spokesman said: “A police spokesman said: “A 51-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman have been arrested and charged in connection with the incident.”
An audience member who witnessed the incident said: “A man was really loud and annoying people so staff asked him to calm down but because he was drunk he took offence and started throwing punches.
“It took about four ushers to restrain him and then another fight broke out in the stalls. The curtain came down and the lights went up. It was a shame to see the Playhouse staff get assaulted like that.”
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