Have Audiences Always Been Rowdy?观众一贯如此吵闹吗？

When Harry Styles was pelted with chicken nuggets while on stage at New York’s Madison Square Gardens， he took it in his stride1. “Interesting approach，” smiled Styles， who has also weathered kiwi fruits， Skittles and bunches of flowers while performing. But when a mystery object hit him in the eye at a concert in Vienna， he wasn’t laughing but， rather， wincing in pain.

在纽约麦迪逊广场花园的舞台上被人扔鸡块时，哈里·斯泰尔斯泰然处之。“这方式真有趣。”斯泰尔斯笑着说，他在表演时还挨过猕猴桃、彩虹糖和花束的砸。但在维也纳的一场演唱会上，有个不明物体击中了他的眼睛，他没有笑，而是眉头紧皱，表情痛苦。

It was in a string of incidents where audience members have hurled potentially dangerous objects at performers. Drake was hit on the arm by a flying phone. Country singer Kelsea Ballerini was struck in the face with a bracelet. Bebe Rexha was taken to hospital and needed multiple stitches after a phone hit her in the eye. A man， since charged with assault， told police he thought it “would be funny” to try and hit the singer.

观众向表演者投掷潜在危险物品的事件众多，斯泰尔斯的遭遇只是其一。德雷克曾被一部从人群中飞出的手机砸中手臂。乡村歌手凯尔西·巴莱里尼曾被手镯砸到脸。碧碧·雷克萨让手机砸伤了眼睛，被送去医院缝了很多针。被控伤人的男子告诉警方，他觉得拿东西砸这位歌手“会很有趣”。

It’s not just live music seeing disruptive behaviour. Police were called to a performance of The Bodyguard musical in Manchester when rowdy audience members reacted with “unprecedented levels of violence” to staff. At other venues there has been everything from “heated arguments” to full-on brawls.

破坏行为不仅仅出现在现场音乐会。音乐剧《保镖》在曼彻斯特上演时，吵闹的观众以“前所未有的暴力”对待工作人员，警方接警后随即赶到现场。在其他场合，破坏行为从“激烈争论”到大打出手，应有尽有。

Across the cultural sphere， it feels like audiences are misbehaving. At a Las Vegas show， Adele weighed in2， saying： “Have you noticed how people are like， forgetting… show etiquette at the moment？”

在整个文艺领域，观众似乎都在捣乱。在拉斯维加斯的一场演出中，阿黛尔站出来说道：“你们注意到没有，此刻人们好像都忘了观演礼仪？”

Billie Eilish meanwhile， says this kind of thing， while “infuriating”， is nothing new. “I’ve been getting hit on stage with things for like， literally， six years，” she told the Hollywood Reporter. Dr Kirsty Sedgman， a senior lecturer in theatre at the University of Bristol who specialises in audience research， also cautions against calling it a new trend. “People have always thrown things on stage，” says Sedgman， whose latest book， On Being Unreasonable， explores widening divisions in society over how we use public space. “Whether that’s fruit as a way to signify displeas-ure， or softer items like underwear and flowers as a signal of adoration.” Back in 1775， a performer in Sheridan’s The Rivals stopped the show when he was pelted with an apple.

比莉·艾利什也说，这种事情虽然“令人愤怒”，但并不是什么新鲜事。她在接受《好莱坞报道》的采访时表示：“我在舞台上被各种东西砸，差不多有六年了。”布里斯托尔大学的戏剧高级讲师柯丝蒂·塞奇曼博士专门从事受众研究，她也提醒说，不要把观众闹事称为一种新趋势。“人们总是往舞台上扔东西。”塞奇曼说，她的最新著作《论不合理》探讨了社会各界对“如何使用公共空间”产生的日益扩大的分歧。“无论是扔水果表示不满，还是扔内衣和鲜花等柔软的物品来表示崇拜。”早在1775年，谢里丹戏剧《情敌》的一名表演者就因被人扔苹果而中止演出。

So are things really any worse now？ “If you’d asked me that before lockdown， I would have said that things have always been thus，” says Sedgman. “As far back as the ancient Greeks people like Plato were complaining about what he called a vicious theatrocracy3， where audiences who were previously happy to sit quietly suddenly wanted to use their tongues and start cheering and screaming. And the norm in Shakespeare’s time was to watch performances at the same time as more bodily forms of consumption， such as eating and drinking and talking and socialising.”

那现在问题真的更严重了吗？塞奇曼说：“疫情封控前如果你问我这个问题，我会说向来如此。早在古希腊时期，柏拉图等人就在抱怨此事。柏拉图称这种现象为‘邪恶的剧场政体’，观众前一秒还乐于安静地坐着观赏，突然就想说话，然后开始欢呼和尖叫。莎士比亚时代的常态是，人们在观看表演的同时身体也不闲着，比如一边吃吃喝喝，一边聊天社交。”

The idea that audiences should sit and listen quietly is a relatively recent expectation. Post-pandemic though， Sedgman does think something has changed. “To some extent we’ve been having these debates about live performance， whether the norm should be more quiet and subdued or more active and exuberant for a very long time， but I work with a lot of people throughout the cultural industries， and the message seems to be pretty much unanimous that since lockdown ended， the situation has fundamentally shifted.”

观众要安静地坐着听，这是一个相对较新的期望。然而，塞奇曼的确认为，疫情过后情况已然有所改变。“从某种程度上说，我们很长时间以来一直在讨论，现场表演的氛围应该是更安静、克制，还是更活跃、热情，但是我和文艺产业的很多人有接触，大家似乎一致认为，自疫情封控结束后情况已从根本上发生了变化。”

That bears out4 in a report by the UK’s Broadcasting， Entertainment， Communications and Theatre Union （Bectu） which found that 90% of theatre staff had witnessed bad behaviour—and 70% believed things had got worse since the pandemic.

英国广播娱乐电影与剧院工会的一份报告证实了这一点。报告显示，90%的剧院员工目睹过不良行为，70%的员工认为疫情后情况更糟了。

“It’s not all audiences by any means， but for a lot of people， there’s a growing sense of what I call ‘don’t-tell-me-what-to-do-itis’，” says Sedgman. She believes we’re seeing a breakdown in social contracts—the behavioural norms and rules of engagements that keep us all ticking along5 together nicely.

塞奇曼说：“并非所有观众都如此，但在许多人心中，我所谓的‘不要告诉我该怎么做’意识越来越强。”她认为，我们正在目睹社会契约的崩溃——也就是让我们所有人和睦相处的行为规范和规则正在崩溃。

People are thirsty for live entertainment again， but increasingly want it on their terms—especially when ticket prices are soaring. “People are coming with actively competing ideals about what they want that experience to be like，” says Sedgman. “Some people want to not be disturbed by others chatting or eating or drinking， or have phones blocking their way. Other people want to maybe take a step backwards to the time when the arts were a more sociable experience. The difficulty is that those pleasures are irreconcilable.”