When you watch Game of Thrones, you're likely in the comfort of your own living room, with a glass of wine and some popcorn, ready to shout at the screen when crazy things happen. However, when you see your favourite Thrones actors elsewhere, keep in mind that you should be a little more considerate.
Apparently, when Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, starred in a West End play recently, his fans didn't get the memo.
Theater producer Richard Jordan wrote an op-ed for The Stage in which he ripped the audience members of Doctor Faustus at the Duke of York's Theatre, which closed last week.
"My night at Doctor Faustus will rate as possibly the worst West End audience I have ever encountered," he wrote.
Audience members chomped loudly on snacks and even left during intermission to buy McDonald's to eat during the second half of the show. If they weren't eating, they were blatantly using their cell phones to take photos and record videos of the play, ignoring the pleas of ushers to put their devices away. And lots of audience members were "vocally commenting as if watching TV at home," he added.
"What amazed me most was this audience, many of them Game of Thrones fans, could see nothing wrong in talking, eating and taking pictures throughout the show – or complaining when asked to stop," Jordan wrote.
Harington took issue with these comments, saying that stodgy critics are taking aim at the youth audience, which is crucial to keep theater going.
"I am afraid that, if the theatre is going to die of anything, it will be from exactly this type of stereotyping and prejudice aimed towards a new and younger generation of theatregoers," he told The Guardian.
"I have been a theatregoer since childhood and I didn't feel that our audiences were disrespectful in the slightest. […] I found our audiences to be hugely enthusiastic, energized and responsive. I can't think of a greater support I've had as an actor on the stage."
