I have had some odd experiences in theatre with noisy people. We got used to things running slow on Seniors Night when we always had pairs (usually female) one of whom was profoundly deaf. The other would have to shout the dialogue ("HE SAID HE LOVES HER AND THEY SHOULD SNEAK AWAY") into the ear of her hearing impaired friend. It's quite entertaining to hear Shakespeare given a one line precis at the end of your speech. The other was to hear people who verbalized their responses to action on stage. They would blurt out "Oh, that's not right" and yell "Run!" at the hapless victim. Somehow I felt better knowing we were absolutely drawing those people in. And at risk of alienating you Liz I feel the performer was correct in asking you to leave until your daughter was more under self-control. I have no knowledge of the difficulties of raising a hyper-active child but as a performer I have an obligation to my audience not to waste any of that most precious gift: their time. I hope that a lesson might have been learned re the antisocial behaviour; namely that it will not be tolerated. I also think that anyone who is removed from a concert because of these type of problems should get their money back. I have been toying with the idea of having an opening early set of more participatory child-oriented songs because of the parenting obligations of some of my friends. How can I get my 6-year old niece interested in live music when the music gets underway an hour after she flakes out? Her parents are always keeping an eye on the babysitting meter when they're out by themselves.

Back to the topic. I think a greater role should be expected of both the performers and the club management in the handling of noisy patrons.

Michael