Ben West on theatre audiences

In The Independent, playwright Ben West sympathises with actors who respond to provocation from unruly audiences.

Not only do actors have to put up with all the distractions of badly behaved punters, badly maintained theatres, and sometimes badly-behaved staff, but, with our show at least, there have been occasions when kick-off time has been fast-approaching when a selected prop item goes missing or one of the cast gets stuck on our esteemed motorway system – or the theatre's lighting box packs in. With such distractions, coupled with the general underlying tension that actors have to deal with before a performance – and maybe illness or a calamity in their private lives as well, on occasion – it is no surprise that they may be prone to flying off the handle from time to time.

Link via Mark Shenton on Twitter.