West End theatre to shine lasers on audience members caught using their mobile phones during performances

Lasers: The theatre will shame audience members who use their mobile phones during performances
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Laura Proto17 March 2016

A West End theatre is to begin shining lasers at people who use their mobile phones during performances.

The Jermyn Street Theatre, near Piccadilly Circus, will implement the tactic currently used at theatres in China as a way to shame theatre-goers into putting their phones away.

It is hoped shining a light from the back or side of the auditorium would discourage people from offending.

The method is used at the Shanghai Grand Theatre and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing,

Anthony Biggs, artistic director at the Jermyn Street Theatre, told the Times that mobile phone use was becoming a huge problem during performances and wants to trial the new method to see whether it does deter people.

He added: “Having someone sit next to you with their phone on, even vaguely in your eyesight, makes you irrationally angry. Maybe it’s not legally wrong, but it makes you want to kill them anyway.”

Mr Biggs said the theatre would not use the deterrent if theatregoers were worried their sight could be damaged by a laser accidentally shone into a person’s eye.

The new tactic comes just months after Benedict Cumberbatch complained “little red lights” from the audience distracted him during his run in Hamlet at the Barbican.

The theatre said while it was keen to stop mobile phone usage, it was not a method it was looking to use.

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