ABSTRACT
Compared with this vivacious performance, audience performance for much of the twentieth century appears lifeless, dull and restrained. This chapter refers to these changes when they directly affect audience performance. For the purpose of assigning some sort of reference date, the author have used the introduction of electric lighting into theatres in London and New York in the 1880s to demarcate the change from stage etiquette to the pervasion of auditorium etiquette, what is contemporaneously known as theatre etiquette. The dandies of America were strict Keanites and supported the British Edmund Kean during one of his more contested New York performances at the Park theatre in 1825. During one performance, British actor Henry Irving admonished the audience for their poor performance: gentlemen, he cannot act if audience cannot applaud. More interesting than the gregarious performance of food consumption in the theatres was, however, the throwing of food missiles.
