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Legal Eagle

The Public

Q: Redress against noisy school parties

What comeback do I have when my enjoyment of a show is ruined by noisy school parties?

A: The obvious first step is to complain at the time to the adult in charge of the group, making it clear that if he/she does not stop the noisy or unruly behaviour, you will complain to the theatre management and request that either the whole party or the individual troublemakers are ejected, perhaps after a final warning. I should have thought that would be enough to stop it in most cases. However, if it persists and is seriously bothering you, then I suggest you carry out your threat and ask one of the theatre staff to call the manager so you can request him to take appropriate action.

Most theatres reserve the right to deny admission to or eject members of the audience who behave in such a way as to spoil the enjoyment of the performance by others in the theatre. Such an express term of the contract for the sale of the ticket will, however, only be enforceable if drawn to the attention of the purchaser (eg. by being printed on the ticket) at the time of sale. Otherwise the management would have to rely, either on trade custom or on an implied term to the same effect, and I would be very surprised indeed if, when put to the test, such a term would not be readily implied in law. Otherwise the entire audience could have its enjoyment ruined by a single unruly individual.

If the theatre management fails to put a stop to it, then you should complain to it once more (this time in writing) after the performance is over, and again most responsible managements in such circumstances, if satisfied that the complaint is justified, would be expected to offer some redress, such as a refund of your ticket price, or a free ticket for another performance, or some other form of modest compensation. Any similar complaints by other members of the audience will obviously help to substantiate your complaint and make management more amenable to accepting its justification.

In the final analysis, if all else fails you could, technically, sue the theatre management for breach of an implied term of its contract with you by failing to take reasonable steps to ensure you were allowed to enjoy in peace the performance which you had paid it to see, and alternatively for permitting or failing to prevent a nuisance being perpetrated in the auditorium. I suppose you could also, if you were able to get relevant names and addresses, sue the school for negligently allowing its pupils to behave in such a way as to interfere with your enjoyment of the performance. However, either of such steps would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and the amount of energy and expense involved on your part would make any such action counterproductive, particularly as the outcome would be uncertain and any compensation awarded would be comparatively small.

From a practical viewpoint it is therefore really a question of relying on the theatre management to put a stop to any bad behaviour in the auditorium or do the decent thing, so far as compensation is concerned, and I think that is what actually happens in the majority of such cases.

First published 1st December 2005