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We’ve rather lost the art of interacting from the audience. I had hoped, when the Globe opened some years ago, that it might revive the responsive reactions of original Shakespearean performances, but we are still remarkably coy. Far less do we make our displeasure evident as theatregoers of the past did. One audience in Shakespeare’s day objected to the offered entertainment so vehemently – at one point threatening to burn down the theatre – that the company had to change plays three times before they quietened down.
Innovation in great works of art, from Beethoven’s chord progressions to the evocative colours of the Impressionists, have often been initially greeted with very outspoken disapproval.
But it was not just the shocking harmonies and revolutionary rhythms which caused protest at the premier of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring a hundred years ago. The pagan subject matter also contributed to the rioting: the sacrifice of an innocent young virgin, dancing to her death to appease the god of spring...