Charlie Moloney and agency 

Rosamund Pike keeps cool after phone alarm interrupts performance

Disruption during performance of Inter Alia comes weeks after Pike berated audience member for texting during play
  
  

Cast member Rosamund Pike performing Inter Alia at Wyndham's Theatre
Cast member Rosamund Pike performing Inter Alia at Wyndham's Theatre. Photograph: Dave Benett/Jed Cullen/Getty Images

Rosamund Pike kept her cool after a phone alarm in the front row interrupted a performance of Inter Alia on Saturday afternoon.

The actor reportedly berated an audience member last month for being on their phone during the performance at Wyndham’s Theatre in London.

Pike, who won an Olivier award for her role as a crown court judge in the Suzie Miller play, said the texter had broken the bond between cast and audience, The Times reported. On Saturday, it is understood that a member of the audience sitting in the front row failed to notice a phone alarm ringing for more than a minute.

Despite refraining from making any comments after the show had finished, Pike is understood to have shot the woman a glare when the phone was finally retrieved from her handbag and silenced.

One audience member, who sat in the second row, said: “At first I thought the noise was part of the backing track, it was going on for so long.

“But it seemed entirely unfitting with the tone of the scene, about halfway through the play, in which the actors were engaged in quiet conversation.

“I felt so bad for Rosamund and the rest of the cast, especially after what happened a few weeks ago.

“She shot the audience member a glare and it seemed to have distracted her from the scene, although she remained entirely professional in her performance.”

Speaking after the show, one member of front-of-house staff said it was difficult to control mobile phone use in the theatre and added that at least one person gets their device out at every performance.

They said: “It genuinely was at least a minute. It was an alarm on a phone ringing. It’s hard to know [if it threw the cast off].

“I’d imagine it’s more on [Rosamund’s mind right now, as well, because of the last thing and it being in the front row again. We’ll see if she makes a kind of statement about it.

“If it’s within the middle of the row, there’s not much we can do because you have to decide whether you’re going to make more of a disruption by trying to signal to them than the actual thing itself.

“Usually people realise sooner than that, I’m not sure what was going on with this.”

Pike’s previous intervention saw her join a growing number of actors who have criticised audience etiquette and phone usage during theatre performances.

Last month, Lesley Manville told BBC Radio 4 that audiences should not take photos and videos during curtain calls. “Clap or don’t clap, but don’t just stick up your phone in our faces,” she said. “I find it insulting.”

In April, Cynthia Erivo interupted her performance of Dracula in the West End after spotting an audience member filming the show.

During a performance of Hamlet in 2024, Andrew Scott halted the “to be or not to be” soliloquy when he saw an audience member had taken out a laptop to send emails.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*