I was most recently reminded of the no phone movement at Ronnie Scott’s, the famous jazz bar in London, where I was told no photos were allowed. As someone who doesn’t feel the need to document every moment of my life but loves photography, especially for capturing big life events, I was slightly gutted I couldn’t take a picture for a friend’s birthday.
Of course, I could have brought something more discreet like Meta Ray-Bans to sneak a shot (not that I own a pair) or simply snapped a pic outside on my film camera, but that raises another question entirely: should there be exceptions?
A representative for the production, in which Erivo plays all 23 roles, confirmed that there had been a short stop caused by the incident. A commenter on the forum Theatreboard, who said they had been at the show, wrote that Erivo – roughly an hour into the performance – “looked out into the audience and said: ‘Are you filming? Is someone filming?’ and stopped the show”. Another commenter said that they had attended Dracula – which is at the Noël Coward theatre – the following night and that there were extra reminders to the audience about taking photos and filming.
