Enjoying theatre: how a good audience behaves
Theatre is live: real people perform for you, right now, and they can hear and feel the room. So the audience is part of the show. Good audience etiquette:
- Arrive early and find your seat before the lights go down. If you are late, wait for a pause or scene change before entering.
- Switch your phone off, not just silent. Its light and buzz disturb actors and neighbours. Do not record unless the group says it is allowed.
- Keep talking and eating noises low. Laugh or react naturally, but do not talk over the actors.
- Clap at the end (and where the performers invite you). Stay seated until the bows finish.
What to notice: five lenses
Use five lenses to look closely:
- Story: what happens, and what does the main character want?
- Acting: how do body, face and voice show feelings?
- Set and costume: what place, time and style do they suggest?
- Light: where is the focus, and what mood does the colour make?
- Sound: what do music, silence and sound effects add?
Good theatre makes all five work together. You do not need to notice everything at once; pick one lens each time you watch.
Interpreting a performance
Interpretation means working out what the performance is saying. Start from what you saw and heard: "The stage was nearly empty and the light was cold, so the character felt alone." Then link it to the story and to ideas such as friendship, power or change.
Many meanings can be valid, as long as you can point to something in the show that supports yours. The same script can feel very different with another director, other actors or another light colour. That is why people enjoy talking about a play after it.
Writing a theatre review
A review is a short piece that tells readers about a show and gives an opinion with reasons. It has three parts:
- Describe: name of the play, group, place, and a short, spoiler-free summary of what you saw.
- Interpret: what it seemed to say, and how the lenses (acting, set, light, sound) helped.
- Judge with evidence: what worked and what did not, with one or two examples. End with who might enjoy it, or a star rating.
Be fair and kind: criticise the work, not the people. Say "the second scene felt slow because the dialogue repeated" rather than "the actors were bad".
Try it
Watch a school play or a short clip of a stage show. Before it starts, switch off your phone and choose one lens. Afterwards write three sentences: what I saw, what it meant, what I think and why. In the 3D above, try each lens button and the light colour.
Key formulas and definitions
- Five lenses: Story, Acting, Set, Light, Sound
- Review = Describe + Interpret + Judge with evidence
- Good opinion = claim + because + example from the show
- Etiquette: Early, Phone off, Quiet, Clap at the end
Worked examples
1. You see a scene where a girl waits alone at a bus stop under a cold blue light, with one slow tune playing. Use three lenses to say what the scene shows.
Set: a bare bus stop suggests an empty, ordinary place. Light: cold blue makes it feel lonely or sad. Sound: the slow tune adds waiting and sadness. Together they show a girl who feels alone.
2. Turn "I liked it" into a review sentence with evidence.
"I liked the play because the actor playing the grandfather used a slow voice and bent back that made him feel really old, especially in the kitchen scene."
3. You arrive 10 minutes late to a play. What should you do?
Do not walk in while the actors are speaking. Wait outside until the usher says it is a good moment, such as a scene change, then enter quietly and sit in the nearest empty seat.
4. Two people interpret the same play differently: one says it is about courage, the other about loneliness. Can both be right?
Yes, if each can point to evidence in the show: lines, actions, set or light that support their idea. Interpretations can differ, but they need proof from the performance.
Common mistakes
- Keeping the phone on silent but still using it. Its light still disturbs people; switch it off.
- Writing only "it was good" or "it was boring" without a reason or an example.
- Telling the whole ending in a review (a spoiler).
- Judging the actors as people instead of judging the performance.