‘Insulting’: Manville calls out curtain-call snappers

‘Don’t just stick your phone in our face’ says infuriated star

- JACOB STOLWORTHY

To snap or not to snap – that is the question.

Lesley Manville has ignited an impassioned debate after criticising the “insulting” behaviour of theatregoers who take photos during curtain calls. According to the Olivier Award-winning star, phones should be kept in pockets until after the cast have given their bows to an applauding audience.

Manville, who is currently starring in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre, urged people to “take the digital out of it for just a moment”, stating: “Come on, it’s theatre – let’s preserve it! We are all in this room, we are telling you a story, you’re listening – clap or don’t clap, but don’t just stick your phone in our face. I find it insulting,” she said on Radio 4.

The Phantom Thread actor, 70, said it stems from people “wanting to prove they’ve seen” a production, but wondered why they “can’t let it live in their souls for five minutes”.

Manville noted that it’s particularly an issue on Broadway, saying that “virtually the whole audience will take their phones out at the end of the evening”, and has now noticed it “starting to filter in” to the West End, where it “never used to happen”.