Cate Blanchett Urges Audience Not to Film Stage Show

Actress Cate Blanchett has begged an audience at the National Theatre in London not to film her on stage, warning ticket-holders that recording performances spoils the production for future viewers.

The 57-year-old Australian actress, an Academy Award winner known for her acclaimed work on stage and screen, is currently starring in Benedict Andrews' production of Electra/Persona at the Lyttelton Theatre on London's South Bank.

In a video shared on social media on Saturday, Blanchett addressed the crowd after the curtain call while still dressed in her stage costume of a black T-shirt and loose-fitting black trousers.

Urging theatregoers to halt filming and calling for people to be together and be present, Blanchett told fans: "There are few places on this planet where we can simply be together and be present."

The star continued: "I understand you like filming the curtain call - and it is kind of flattering in a way - but for anyone who is filming the show, please don’t, because it spoils it for the next group of people who come in and are present with us. So thank you very much."

Her impassioned message was met with applause from the audience gathered to watch the production.

The play combines Sophocles' ancient Greek tragedy Electra with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s classic 1966 film Persona. In the production, Blanchett shares the roles of Electra/Elisabeth and Clytemnestra/Alma with German actress Nina Hoss.

The staging encourages audience participation at the start when Blanchett asks a member of the crowd to flip a coin to determine which roles the actresses will play that night.

According to the National Theatre’s official synopsis, the play pairs "Electra. A daughter consumed by grief and rage, clinging to the idea of justice as her world comes apart" with "Persona. During a performance of Electra, an actress suddenly falls silent. What follows is a rupture: two women drawn into an intense, unsettling encounter where speech breaks down and the boundaries between self and role give way."

West End stars confront audience phone use

Blanchett's comments come amid growing calls from performers for better etiquette in auditoriums, following several recent incidents where high-profile actors have directly confronted audience members for using mobile phones.

Earlier this year, British actress and producer Rosamund Pike, 47, berated a theatregoer for texting during the finale of her West End performance in Inter Alia at Wyndham's Theatre.

Pike, who plays a Crown Court judge in the devastatingly emotional production, returned to the stage after the curtain had fallen. Instead of soaking in the applause, she hushed the audience and informed the texter that they had broken the bond between the cast and the audience.

In video footage captured by a theatregoer in June, Pike could be seen gesturing toward a corner of the auditorium.

"Somebody was texting in this part - you know who you are. I'm not going to single you out but you know it upsets the performance," Pike told the crowd.

"Maybe it was very important. Maybe you're a doctor and you're saving someone's life and I hope you are," she added. "But we do see things - we do feel them and so when I feel that and see it it's hard. I'm trying to tell you a story and I'm feeling you and I hope you're feeling me too."

Show stoppages and venue ejectments

In April, award-winning actress Cynthia Erivo brought her West End performance in Dracula to a dramatic halt after spotting an audience member filming the show on a mobile phone.

Erivo was starring at London's Noël Coward Theatre in director Kip Williams' contemporary, one-woman adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic Gothic novel.

She curtailed the performance for close to ten minutes after witnessing the direct breach of standard theatre etiquette. Footage circulating online captured bemused audience members, many unaware of the cause, watching in stunned silence as the curtain dropped mid-act.

As nervous laughter rippled across the auditorium, a production assistant was heard urging ticket-holders to "remain seated" with the assurance that the production would "resume shortly."

Captioning a brief clip of the incident, one theatregoer wrote: "Not Cynthia Erivo clocking someone filming in the audience during Dracula and stopping the whole show."

According to WhatsOnStage, another attendee reported that Erivo "straight up called the guy out! Put her hand up - said 'excuse me, are you filming right now?!' And the person said 'sorry'."

In July, Legally Blonde star Amber Davies revealed she had a theatregoer thrown out of a performance after catching her filming the production.

Taking to Instagram during the interval, Davies shared a video on her Stories urging followers not to record live theatre.

"This is your daily reminder not to film at the theatre," Davies began. "Unfortunately tonight at the Bord Gáis we've got a beautiful audience, but there's just one woman in the front row filming the entirety of Act One has had us all distracted."

Davies said the woman's selfish actions had ruined the morale of their wonderful eighth show on a Saturday night at the Dublin venue. She revealed she had reported the ticket-holder to theatre staff.

"Hopefully she's not back for Act Two, I've asked, can she go so we can just enjoy ourselves," Davies added. "But there has been a couple of people filming in Ireland this week and I'm the type of person, I will count how many seats away you are from what door and you will be told and asked to leave. So yeah guys, don't film. Let's just enjoy the two and a half hours together, we don't need to film everything. Okay, right I'm gonna go and do Act Two."

Debates over curtain call photos and singalongs

Other prominent stage actors, including Lesley Manville and Kate Rockwell, have also spoken out strongly against disruptive audience behavior.

Two-time Olivier Award winner Lesley Manville, 70, sparked fierce debate in the theatre world after describing audience members who take photos during curtain calls as insulting.

Manville recently appeared on stage at the National Theatre opposite Rivals star Aidan Turner in the latest adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. She revealed that the production instituted a strict ban preventing the audience from taking any photographs during the show or after, when the cast take their bows.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 in April, Manville lamented the spread of photo-taking during bows, asking why audience members could not "let it live in their souls for five minutes?" She insisted the practice had recently trickled into West End venues from the United States, calling on people to "preserve theatre" and "take the digital out of it just for a moment."

Meanwhile, Heathers: The Musical star Kate Rockwell launched a frustrated tirade against drunken audience members and rowdy superfans.

The 42-year-old American actress, singer, and dancer took to Instagram to discuss proper theatre etiquette. The hit stage musical, based on the 1988 film of the same name, has run off-Broadway since 2014. Rockwell joined the cast last year as a temporary replacement for Kerry Butler in the role of teacher Ms Fleming.

On Wednesday, Rockwell shared a note encouraging young, passionate fans to refrain from singing along during performances, writing: "Please, when you're in the audience, let us do the work. That's what you paid for!!"

Rockwell also condemned intoxicated hecklers for screaming obscenities and losing their ability to act as decent human beings. "If you want to talk through something, stay home and watch Netflix," she added.