{"id":725526,"date":"2026-06-09T16:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/725526\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T16:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:43:08","slug":"tempest-in-the-stalls-as-baby-disrupts-kenneth-branagh-rsc-performance-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/725526\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempest in the stalls as baby disrupts Kenneth Branagh RSC performance | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boatswain! The opening scene of Shakespeare\u2019s seminal play The Tempest<\/a>, in which Prospero conjures up a violent storm to shipwreck his treacherous brother, is enough to wake up anyone \u2013 let alone a baby.<\/p>\n

Audience members at a matinee performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company\u2019s production, starring Kenneth Branagh as Prospero<\/a>, complained after a baby gurgled and cooed its way throughout the entire first half.<\/p>\n

The mother and baby were reportedly asked not to return for the second part of the performance after audience members at the RSC\u2019s Stratford-upon-Avon theatre asked for refunds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a young woman with a baby in the audience \u2013 and it mithered all the way through the first act,\u201d ticketholder Sian Morgan told the Daily Mail. \u201cThank goodness there was never any actual screaming or crying, but it was gurgling and cooing and chirping very loudly throughout. It never let up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgan added the child appeared to wake up during the opening scene. \u201cTheatre audiences generally are very tolerant and progressive, but it was ruining it for everyone as it made it so hard to concentrate \u2013 and by the end people were audibly tutting and turning around to show their displeasure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Morgan said there were \u201cqueues of people lining up to complain\u201d at ticket desks, while others asked for refunds. The mother and baby were asked not to return for the second part and were given the option to watch the remainder of the show from TV monitors in the theatre\u2019s cafe.<\/p>\n

Another audience member said their group had made a six-hour round trip and paid \u00a3400 to attend the performance, which had been \u201ccompletely ruined\u201d by the disturbance.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wanted to be mean to a young mother, but it was simply extraordinary that she seemed unable to read the room and to take the baby outside when it began being noisy,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Among those in the audience was also former home secretary David Blunkett, who is blind and relies on hearing. \u201cI said to the person sitting next to me: \u2018I\u2019m very tolerant but I\u2019m not sure the baby\u2019s getting anything out of this,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The production of The Tempest marks Branagh\u2019s return to the RSC for the first time in 30 years. Tickets, which cost up to \u00a3112, sold out within hours of going on sale last year.<\/p>\n

The RSC\u2019s guidance says that babes-in-arms can be admitted to all performances, but if the child is disturbing others an adult \u201cmay need to watch the show from the screen outside the auditorium with the baby\u201d.<\/p>\n

Adults with young children are encouraged to instead attend a \u201cchilled performance\u201d, which \u201ctakes a more casual approach to noise and movement in the auditorium\u201d.<\/p>\n

Theatre etiquette has been in the spotlight recently after Rosamund Pike called out an audience member for texting during a pivotal scene of Inter Alia<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boatswain! The opening scene of Shakespeare\u2019s seminal play The Tempest, in which Prospero conjures up a violent storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-725526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}