Dilettante: Should we relax about phone use at the cinema?

“Somebody was texting in this part,” she said as she pointed towards a specific section of the room. “You know who you are, and I’m not going to single you out. […] I just wanted to say, for anyone going to the theatre, it’s a huge thing that we’re trying to give you. I am trying to tell you a story, and I’m feeling you, and I hope you’re feeling me too.”

Though she did end her curtain call rant by joking that she hoped that maybe the person had been a doctor in the process of saving a life, attendees reported that she seemed deeply upset at their peer’s poor behaviour, especially as it happened during a particularly tense scene. 

Crucially, Pike wasn’t in any way an exception, and merely joined the likes of Dame Imelda Staunton, Daniel Craig, Benedict Cumberbatch and Lesley Manville in criticising theatre audiences for their problematic conduct. Clearly, there is a real problem here.

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You may have noticed it as well; I go to the theatre quite rarely but aim to go to the cinema at least twice a month and I have, as a result, witnessed more than my fair share of needlessly loutish behaviour in spaces where everyone ought to be polite and quiet. It really isn’t rocket science: you buy your ticket, you try to eat most of your popcorn during the trailers, then you sit as a movie happens in your general direction. We managed it for decades, as a country, but somehow that is now beyond a lot of people.

They can be young or old, vaguely embarrassed or entirely brazen: what they have in common is that they’ll get their phones out to text during the film, and they’ll talk to each other, and – on one memorable occasion – they’ll even take pictures of what’s happening on the screen, presumably so they can then post about it on Instagram.

Naturally, it’s infuriating. There are no live performers to irk when you’re in the cinema but you still aren’t in your living room; there are other, real, live people around you. You’ve willingly decided to be a member of society. You can’t just act like no-one else exists. It’s the same logic as those people who play loud music on public transport: somehow, they seem to believe that they’re entirely alone in the world.

Now, one thing all those behaviours have in common is that they got worse as the world reopened at the end of the Covid lockdowns. As it turns out, cultural norms need to be continually enforced; otherwise, they just disappear. The only way to bring them back is for people misbehaving to be told off, which is why I thought that Rosamund Pike was doing the right thing.

She explained the rules to her own audience, sure, but insistent media coverage may also lead to more and more people deciding that, say, texting at the theatre simply isn’t ever going to be worth the risk. In that way, it’s been a triumph.

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There is one small question gnawing at me, though. Shouldn’t we want people to leave the house as much as possible, especially as so many struggled to get out of a pandemic which showed them that the cocoon of their homes was so comfortable? 

I’m in favour of tech-free silence in all the circumstances mentioned above but must admit that I’d find it a lot easier to listen to live classical music if the idea of checking my phone once in a while weren’t so taboo. Couldn’t there be more separate performances or audience areas – for those who want to focus without any distractions and for those who will find the experience less daunting if they can tune out once in a while?

Maybe we could start with cinemas. There are already screenings for people with dogs and people who want to eat a full meal while watching a movie. Should there perhaps be some special showings for people who like texting while sitting deep in their red seats? It’d be my own personal vision of hell but maybe that’s a lesson we can take from this post-lockdown world: everyone is different and we need a society that works for everyone, as the alternative is just too bleak to contemplate.