JAKARTA - Rosamund Pike did not stay silent when she saw the audience busy using their cellphones during a theater performance. The British actress reprimanded the audience after appearing in Inter Alia at Wyndham's Theatre, West End, London, on Saturday.
Launching The Mirror, Tuesday, June 2, Pike returned to the stage during the curtain call, which is the moment when the actors pay homage to the audience after the show is over. In front of the audience, he delivered a short message about the ethics of watching theater.
"I'm trying to tell you a story, and I feel your presence. I hope you feel me too," said the Olivier Award winner.
Pike, who plays a court judge in Inter Alia, did not name the spectator. He just pointed to the lower seat area, where the spectator allegedly sent the message.
"There's someone who sent a message in this section. You know who you are and I won't point you out, but you know it's disrupting the show," he said.
Pike joked. He hopes the message is very important, maybe from a doctor who is saving someone's life.
"But we see things like that. We feel it," Pike said.
According to The Mirror's report, a number of spectators then supported Pike's stance on social media. One X user wrote that the show was amazing, but gave special praise to Pike for daring to reprimand the audience who sent messages during an important scene.
Another user called the moment "pretty cool" because Pike scolded the audience at the curtain call, not stopping the show.
PTC Management also expressed support via Instagram. The agency said the interrupted scene was one of the most emotional moments for the actors.
Cellphone problems in theaters are nothing new. Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, and Benedict Cumberbatch have also highlighted audience behavior that disrupts performances.
Hugh Jackman even stopped the Broadway show A Steady Rain in 2009 because the audience's cellphones kept ringing in the middle of a tense scene.
"You want to pick it up?" Jackman said then, still in character.
He then asked the audience to turn off their cellphones. Other spectators greeted him with applause.
The incident adds to a list of complaints by theater actors against the use of audience cellphones during live performances.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
