I once played Albert the Horse in Alan Bennett's lovely adaptation of The Wind in the Willows and during every matinee I was forced to neigh disapprovingly at children whooping loudly every time my wise old talking horse was about to save Toad from another disaster. Rumour has it that the cast of The Sound of Music referred to the show as The Sound of Mucus, so deafening were the coughs and sneezes coming from the auditorium during every performance. The concert hall too is notorious for audience participation, sometimes of the wrong kind. Alfred Brendel, the pianist, once chastised his audience: 'either you stop coughing or I stop playing.'
Now we might know why people cough in auditoriums. In a new report entitled Why do people (not) cough in concerts? The economics of concert etiquette, (see story here) Professor Andreas Wagner of the University of Hannover claims that coughing is 'excessive and non random'. Coughing is seen as an acceptable form of audience participation by many participants. Coughing is a 'wilful action'.
The research revealed that the average concertgoer coughs at 0.025 times a minute, a rate double the normal average of 18 coughs a day.
I am sure we all have sympathy with Downton Abbey author and screenwriter Julian Fellowes who famously, last year, explosively rebuked a fellow audience member who was coughing persistently in the next row at the Royal Court in London. 'You must stop coughing', he barked. After the outburst you could not hear a pin drop, only the actors on the stage.
Dick Skellington 22 March 2013
The views expressed in this post, as in all posts on Society Matters, are the views of the author, not The Open University.
Cartoon by Gary Edwards