By Jenylle Rufin
"There's lots of experiences where I've seen shows that are like oh crap this person did not read this trigger warning or like this trigger warning did not make it to this person and I'm watching them [pointing at camera] from across the room and I'm like [covers eyes as if blocking something from view] 'oh God, end the play, get this out'." As Audience member, Tracy Harris, explains their reactions to witnessing other audience members sit through uncomfortable and possibly even harmful moments within a show, one can't help but think, why do audiences endure sitting through and watching something they don't enjoy and may even be harmful for themselves? One of the biggest factors influencing this decision is the fact that, when we are in the theatre, we are sharing the same space with many others, including both fellow audience members and the actors on stage. This is what we come to the theatre for, to have this collective experience. As audience member, Mason Fader, explains, "the communal experience of it is huge for me and yeah just being able to be there and feel and feel the energy in the presence of everyone else in the room, even if you don't, you know, strictly speaking, interact with them." As Terry O'Sullivan argues, the audience becomes a community through three ways; having shared consciousness, performing collective rituals and traditions, and a having a sense of moral responsibility. As such, this suggest that deviating from these practices and acting against the shared group consciousness, traditions, and responsibilities alienate and outcast you from the community, and everyone wants to be a part of the community. This is seen through audience member, Tracy Harries, who describes this need for validation between audience members to ensure that what their reactions and feelings are is accepted and reciprocated through the community: "He also had no idea what he was doing, and we were beside each other, so I think there was also that kind of camaraderie of like what's going on." Therefore, if the other audience members feels fine, there is a pressure within an individual to also feel the same way as everyone else. If an audience member is triggered and realize no one else around them feel the same, they become alienated from the community. As such, to prevent this alienation, they sit through shows and scenes that are unenjoyable or even triggering to them.
Further, Audiences are also very aware of their presence with actors and audience that they will do anything to be, or at least appear to be, a good audience member, even if it means sitting through something that may not be good for their well-being or they simply don't enjoy. The rising number of articles posted about "poor audience behaviour" in recent years has also helped in creating this almost underlying fear of being seen as one of those bad audience members that are often written about by fellow audience member or publicly complained about by actors. "Patti LuPone famously snatched a phone out of one person in the audience's hand during her performance of Shows for Days in 2015 after they were caught texting", "‘Hadestown’ & Jujamcyn Theaters Apologize And Reaffirm “Commitment To Accessibility” After Actor Calls Out Audience Member With Hearing Loss Using Captioning Device", "Easy way out: why it's weak to walk out on theatre." Headlines and articles such as these have increasingly made audiences hyperaware of their actions and if their actions will be perceived as poor theatre etiquette. The last thing audience member want to do is make a scene that will distract from the show by being a bad audience member, or worse, be publicly shamed for doing something wrong. As such, many continue to sit through shows despite its content possibly being triggering.
This becomes very problematic and concerning as one should not have to sit through something that would harm or trigger them. The root of this issue are the traditional theatre norms and etiquette present within traditional western theatres. The shedding of one’s individuality in order to become a part of the audience community calls for following these norms and traditional etiquette. However, this is not an easy task to simply call for generations of normalized practices to be removed which many consider a tradition. So, what can we as theatre creators and practitioners do to prevent audiences from feeling forced to sit through harmful and possibly traumatic scenes? How can we make them feel comfortable enough to leave when they need to? How can we ensure that trigger warnings get to those who need it?
I would argue that the answer to this is to consider everyone in accessibility. Accessibility is not only to consider those who are hard of hearing, in a wheelchair, or physically disabled. Accessibility should also include those who may have triggers, those who may need to enter and leave the show to use the washroom, etc. As such, considerations for these individuals to feel comfortable leaving the theatre space must be made. Further, accessibility should also be considered in each and every performance not just relaxed and sensory friendly performances. As creators, it is difficult to influence the audience community as a show occurs since we are not a part of the world they have created. We must then look to the resources we have prior to the show starting. The Front of house is essential in this as each audience member will go through this area prior to sitting in the audience. Trigger warnings and audience expectations should be communicated with audience members in this area, whether through a sign or QR code. Further, they should also be accessible in programs if there are any. These were incorporated in the DAN school’s production of Paradise Lost in early 2024, and yet there were still people who left at intermission because they didn’t realize it included topics that were triggering to them. Despite the accessibility coordinator creating trigger warnings and an access package for an audience, they somehow still didn’t reach certain audiences. What else can we do? I look towards the use of pre-show announcements. Pre-show announcements have often been used to enforce certain theatre etiquette guidelines: turn off cellphones, no video or photography, unwrap any candy wrappers now before the show starts, no food or drink in the theatre. However, it also has the potential to be used as a way to communicate audience expectations and trigger warnings to anyone it didn’t reach. The use of pre-show announcements has the potential to set the scene for the audience as well as set the world and environment within the audience community, forcing audiences to create safe spaces for each other rather than simply expecting them to do so for each other. While the audiences have the power to create a world between themselves, we as creators also have the power to force them to create their world within our own set of guidelines and rules before the show starts. Theatre creators and practitioners forget they still have power within the theatre space once the house opens, we should use this power to force the creation safe spaces for those who need it and are forgotten once the show starts.