I have nothing at all against commas , just like dots. what do you have against ........................................................?

I remember about 6 yobs sat in front of me at the cinema,all they did throughout the film was fart tunes.Very distracting.

Oh...........................................................

Probably not. It's a quiet Tuesday night  - bums on seats and goodwill and all that. sorry if it sounds un PC but that's how it goes.

Joseph, unless it has changed drastically over the years is full of song and dance so I can't see how a group of people joining in could have made much difference.

This thread needs to be locked.  Sorry Soozy.

I'll name that tune in one.

Why? i don't think it was a case of people joining in really. I think you know that too. I hand on heart and honestly and truly have all the time in the world for disabled people and stand up for their rights. However ..........let's be honest here - they can be noisy and disruptive - when you have paid money to see a show - do you really need it? I'm all for inclusion in education, work and life in general but , there is a limit IMO. The people sat at the front paid the same money and didn't have the distraction (and believe me it was a distraction) why should others have their evening spoilt?  Why should this thread be locked? why should something like this be swept under the carpet? Is it not something that should be discussed?

I have the feeling I've made myself even more unpopular than I was already. I simply felt that it was an interesting topic for discussion.


Whoops ...........night folks

I think the next time someone decides to put on a performance of John Cage's seminal piece 4'33", these people should be invited to the audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHEZk6dSReI

it is a tricky one, there is no answer. you cannot make disabled people go sit in the corner and shut up, and you can't keep them indoors to never bother society. places normally have special showings for disabled people, but A) they are not enough or flexible...and when you are disabled you NEED flexible and B) why should they be seperated? it reminds me of when black people had a special seating area on the bus so they dont bother the whites.

that said i know how annoying it can be when someone is constantly making noise, or fiddling with your seat, during a show, if it was a night semi reserved for disabled people the company perhaps should have let your son and friend know this and booked their tickets so they are not directly in front of them...seeing as there were loads of room. though i do wonder why your son didn't just move or ask to be moved rather than enduring it to the end then think about complaining.

personally i'd just suck it upto experience...but then i DO have the patience of a saint when it comes to stimming an repetitive noises..i bloody need to

and ....................rule!

i dont like simple commas, unless i have to use them i simply find it easier to read when words are not so close together....but that is just me

tis a thread on the internets not a letter to the queen

Of course you haven't made yourself unpopular Soozy. And I agree it is an interesting topic. But not a topic with easy answers.

It's something of a moral dilemma. But it is certainly a topic deserving of consideration and I thank you for posting it.

Joseph is not what anyone could call a "singalong" musical.  It does have a unique storyline and it requires that you concentrate, in order to follow the said story.  Distractions of any kind would, in my opinion, spoil a long looked forward to performance with what the OP described.

Here in Ireland, any group of persons which would be likely to spoil a person's experience of the musical would be offered as many seats as required at any of the Matinee performances.

If it were one of my sons who experienced what the OP described, I would encourage him to make his experiences known to the "powers that be" and ask if it would be possible to have seats reallocated for a future performance.

Maybe if people are offended by disabled people, the offended people could stay indoors

Not just a problem for people in wheelchairs - something similar happened to my parents. 
They were visiting me for a fortnight and as it was their anniversary during the stay, I got them tickets for a David Essex concert (a favourite of my Mum). I was vaguely aware that as the venue was a hall rather than a proper theatre, all the "stalls" seats were on the same level (apart from some seats at the back), but I was still buying proper "seats", and as it was only David Essex, I naively didn't think much of it.

Of course, when David came on stage, the whole audience stood up, and remained standing for the whole show. My parents found themselves behind a couple both well over 6 foot tall, and saw very little of the performance.

If I'd been there, I'd have tried to get my parents moved, but they "didn't want to cause a fuss".  


It's always worth having a (very polite) word with a member of staff - ideally during an interval. After all, they want everyone to enjoy the show - if nothing else to ensure that they'll consider coming back. If you don't consider your seats to be suitable, they're often able to find alternatives. I've had a chat with theatre managers on a few occasions, and have always found them accomodating.


Ultimately, the only real answer is "forewarned is forearmed". I made a mental note that the next time I bought tickets for that particular venue, I would either go for the raised area at the back, or else the circle.

Its not a question of "there were empty boxes so why not use them" as this is segregation and against the law
More over it is about how people with disability are still seen as a group - not individuals - who are coralled like cattle cos its easier

Tell me about it, I nearly missed the Baggies winning goal against Rotherham because of some woman who had spent the whole match texting, going to the toilet, and leaving to get coffee, pies etc 5 minutes before half time and then coming back 5 minutes after the game has restarted.  I was fuming and even my hubby who's really even tempered commented on her.

Ideally, that is what I would like - and expect -  when I go to the theatre. Doesn't everybody?

I know this doesn't always happen, sometimes for unfortunate or unforseen reasons, and sometimes for selfish, thoughtless and bad-mannered reasons.
 I think it is a topic worthy of reasonable discussion.
Our thoughts were asked for in a reasonable way, so I think we should give them in a reasonable way.
(I doubt there is a neat answer though.)
Regards

Believe me the reply was reasonable to the first few I typed out.

I still think it's wrong, but will delete post as to cause no offence, not my way.

Regards to you too.

Disabled folks are like anyone else,

the question is a practical one,the fact that this group of people were disabled and  not deliberately being disruptive doesn't  resolve  the problem of that disruption.

ok if  it was a group of able people being disruptive the course of action is obvious, a complaint to the management  to either shut them up or be ejected from the theatre .
 
that course of action isn't available or desirable in this case,so another solution is needed, i would have moved away,which for those arguing  about  how terrible it would be to segregate them, holds no water, because  moving away from them would have the same effect and i don't see how swathes of theatre goers moving away from their vicinity is a more sensitive  course of action than any other. 

no matter how noble and pc we congratulate ourselves on being, i think even the most right on person,would at some point issue  an irritated sigh or even  a small 'tut'.

I'm another who has been on the receiving end, but unfortunately from someone who wasn't quite a polite.

Last christmas my 5 year old daughter was taking part in a production by her ballet school and me and my DH wanted to go together to the Saturday performance and so we had to take our 1 year-old with us, which doesn't seem so bad, especially as there were lots of toddlers/babies there and, to my mind, he was pretty well-behaved for a baby.

However, there was a family with the grandparents of the performer in front of us and the grandparents took objection and kept muttering and at one point the woman put her chair leg straight into my foot!  As we went out to the interval the daughter of the older woman actually came up to me to apologise for her mother's behaviour but we still didn't feel we could stay for the second half

The point I'm trying to make is if it's an involuntary thing then I would try to be understanding but if they were just being rude then you have every right to complain.

Every so often I see a thread on here that pisses me off so much that I have to just back out quietly rather than say something I will regret.  This is one of those occasions, and I will try to back out quietly - hopefully without mooing or farting

Well said, Foxy.


Soozywoo, I suppose you might tell your son to look upon his experience as a (fairly rare) opportunity to witness disadvantaged people enjoying themselves in a public arena, the same privilige that he enjoys every day?....A far more uplifting and enriching experience than Joseph or any play. That's not being PC, that's showing human empathy and compassion.

best post in this thread

I'm sorry Sooozy, but are you trying to start a row?  You say you don't want to be unPC, then you post somethinglike this?

I can understand that your son's enjoyment may have been impaired and that he may not have wanted to ask to be moved as that would clearly be rude to the people behind, but perhaps before your son picks up the phone to complain about the behaviour of the patrons behind them he should take a step back and be grateful that he wasn't one of the people in the seat behind.  Count his lucky stars that he's not in that situation.

It was a Tuesday night performance, not a saturday night.  I am therefore sure the people organising their trip picked a night that would cause least disruption to the least amount of people.

One night ruined, one ticket down the drain, it doesn't really compare to what the folk behind him have to face on a daily basis, does it?

There but for the grace of god go I....

Says yer one in the VIP seats

I was pushed here by some ignorant little oik....

Why didn't the offended people complain/point out/whatever to the people disrupting proceedings? They could have done it in a non offensive way.

Do you think so hun? I'm not sure I could have tbh. It's one thing to say something to someone who is deliberately making a noise and being thoughtless and anti social but quite another to complain either to or about people who may have no control over noises they make etc. The people making the noise probably weren't even aware that they were doing it or, if they were, had no control over stopping it.

And, if they had carers with them, then the carers probably have become so used to it that they can block it out to a certain extent.

Like I said earlier. there is no easy answer to this

When we were in the cinema recently, someone kept kicking the back of my seat.  My husband noticed that I was starting to look annoyed, and he leaned in and said 'It's okay, it's a handicapped lad.'  Of course that made all the difference, knowing that it wasn't somebody deliberately winding me up, and I was able to ignore it completely.  It's all about intention really.

I'd have hounded you from your seats with a rolled-up programme. May I recommend Handel’s Israel in Egypt? It covers the same sort of ground as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and is, in my opinion, just as good. In fact, it starts where Andrew Lloyd Weber left off, with the death of Joseph –"The Ways of Zion do Mourn". Don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but the Jews make a clean getaway, and it all ends happily. Incidentally, if Moses had turned right instead of left, the Jews could have had the oil, and the Arabs would have got the oranges. "The Lord is a man of war… Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them…." "Shalala Joseph you're doing fine, You and your dreamcoat ahead of your time." It’s a different approach, but who is to say which is better?

I'm disabled and I feel extremely hurt by some of the comments in this thread.
I feel as though I should be hidden away somewhere and not allowed in the same area as "normal" folk.

Not all disabilities are the same.

If you mean "mentally handicapped" then say it
If you mean paraplegic then say it
If you mean deaf then say it
or if you mean one of the countless other disabilities, then say it. WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME>  we arepeople who happen to have one or more disabilities.

hugs  Nana

This really is a difficult one, can understand why anyone would be annoyed having paid for an evenings entertainment and enjoyment, only to not be able to relax and listen or even hear, but then again, of course these people are clearly disabled and we shouldn't discriminate, everyone has freedom to go where and whenever.  Although I do believe it is the theatre's problem, surely they could have put on the production for free for maybe different care homes, but again that sounds like segregation.  I really don't know, but must admit I would have tutted.

The most obvious solution was to go to the management and request to be moved or to have your tickets replaced for another night.

Excellent post - as a disabled person myself I was despairing of this thread until I read this

Oh Suzi, don't be so bloody obvious

Pengy, it might be an excellent post hun, but it's not real is it just wish it were