Poster for Suzie Miller's play Inter Alia (2025)
Starring Rosamund Pike as Jessica Parks
Wyndham's Theatre (London)
I.
I don't know why, but I've always had something of a soft spot for the English actress Rosamund Pike, even though, as far as I can recall, I've only ever seen her in a couple of films - Jack Reacher (2012) and Gone Girl (2014).
Maybe it's because she's a Londoner. Or maybe it's because she's a bit posh, has a nice voice and an unusual face. Or maybe I just like the name, Rosamund, which has a fascinating dual etymology [1].
Whatever the reason, I'm afraid to say that I don't entirely sympathise with her calling out of an audience member for daring to text while she was performing at a West End theatre [2].
II.
Returning to the stage after the cast had taken their final bows, Ms Pike addressed the audience directly, telling them how hard it is to tell a story and keep the magic of the moment when people are using their phones to take photos or send messages.
Apparently, she received a round of applause for this.
But I would like to remind her and the growing band of thespians who have chosen to criticise the contemporary audience for their lack of etiquette, that we are in 2026 and the hyper-connected digital world is very different from the analogue world of just thirty years ago.
In 1996, when the auditorium lights went down, the outside world vanished and people sat up in their seats, shut up, and paid attention to what unfolded on the stage. But - whether we like it or not - smartphones have changed all that.
Now, not only is there an expectation of continuous connectivity, but so too is there an acceptance of (and even a need for) constant distraction. Audiences quickly become bored and impatient with a drama that demands sustained intellectual and emotional engagement.
The simple fact is theatregoers today do not think of themselves as participants in some quasi-religious art event unfolding in a semi-magical space, but as consumers who have paid good money to have a good time. And just as they are not going to queue up for tickets any longer or dress up in their Sunday best clothes, so they are not going to turn off their phones or stop taking photos to share on social media.
III.
And let me remind my actor friends also that theatres were once incredibly rowdy and highly interactive places. The enforcement of absolute silence in the auditorium was a relatively modern development; part of a campaign to tame the audience spearheaded by the rising middle class during the Victorian era [3].
Prior to the late-19th century, theatregoers did not sit passively in the dark, nervous even about clearing their throats or rustling a sweet paper. Essentially, playhouses were more like modern music halls or taverns. The auditorium was lit just as brightly as the stage and people went to the theatre to socialise, to flirt, and to be seen in their finery, rather than merely watch actors treading the boards.
Audience members would not only loudly converse with one another, they would actively heckle the performers. And if they particularly disliked what they saw, they might even throw rotten fruit. The possibility that things might kick off and lead to a riot was ever-present.
All of which I'm sure Ms Pike - as an Oxford graduate with a degree in English Literature - must surely know, making her on-stage griping purely performative and a little disingenuous.
Notes
[1] The genuine origin of the name is Germanic, deriving from the terms hros and mund and translates in modern English as protector of horses. During the Middle Ages, however, the name became associated with the Latin phrases rosa munda (pure rose) and rosa mundi (rose of the world) - the latter of which was often used to refer to the Virgin Mary.
As for her surname - Pike - it is not clear whether this refers to the weapon or the fish. It has also been speculated that it might derive from the word 'peak' (the highest point of a hill or mountain).
[2] The play was Suzie Miller's Inter Alia (2025) - a feminist moral drama - and the performance took place at Wyndham's Theatre on Saturday 30 May, 2026. The play earned critical acclaim upon its original National Theatre run and its current West End staging has also had mostly excellent reviews, particularly Pike's performance as Jessica Parks.
[3] As the bourgeoisie grew in economic power and self-confidence, they sought spaces that reflected their values of respectability and restraint. And so it was decided that working-class audiences would be increasingly priced out of mainstream theatres or obliged to frequent cheaper venues, such as music halls.
Plays were rebranded as high art rather than low-brow amusement and actors began to take themselves seriously as artistes who belonged on an elevated stage and in the limelight - whilst the audience were literally left down below in the dark. The only time they could express themselves was at the end of the performance, when it was hoped they would clap and cry bravo!
Just to be on the safe side, theatre managers even began printing rules of etiquette directly into playbills and putting up placards instructing audiences on how to behave. Shushing became an accepted method used by the bourgeois to silence and humiliate anyone who broke the rules.
By the early 20th century, the transformation was complete; the working class largely abandoned the the so-called legitimate theatre for the interactive freedom of the music halls and, later, the cheaper, more casual environment of early cinemas.
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