I WAS angry and depressed to read Brian Beacom's article with regard to the behaviour of theatre audiences in Glasgow and Edinburgh ("Whatever happened to once-polite Scots theatre audiences?", The Herald, February 14). I have always loved the theatre, be it as an audience member, a director, a performer, a "techie" or a front-of-house assistant.

I saw my first theatre performance of Peter Pan at Glasgow's King's Theatre at the age of four, and likewise my first Gilbert and Sullivan opera at the Theatre Royal thanks to my mum and dad; they introduced me to the world of theatre, they bought tickets for me and my sister to join them and see wonderful performances of every type. I loved it.

And I was educated by them – on what to do in the theatre, how to appreciate every member of staff, from box-office assistants helping me to buy tickets to usherettes and ushers helping me to my seat; how to behave and when to applaud; even, as I grew older, to occasionally leave a performance if I did not enjoy what was happening onstage, but to leave at the interval so that I did not disturb or annoy other members of the audience.

The horrendous incidents which Mr Beacom reported sadly reflect our society just now, too, where in some instances our day to day lives are led by self-centred and ignorant people in positions of authority who attempt to tell us how to behave, but who in many cases have no intelligence nor common sense.

Certainly from what Mr Beacom and others say, the Ambassador Theatre Group must take some blame for audiences' behaviour in their theatres – ban drinking if customers do not know how to behave, ban drinking inside the theatre space itself, employ more house staff who have the power to immediately evict the horrible, ignorant and selfish people who now seem to be attending theatres, especially musicals, and ban them from all future shows when they attempt to book seats.

Please educate from a young age, by teaching basic manners, basic good behaviour, basic general knowledge – and introduce not only youngsters who are our future theatre audiences, but also the current audiences for every type of performance, to the wonders of the theatre, and more importantly how to behave and respect this unique experience.
Walter Paul, Glasgow

Unfair criticism of opera-goers

I NOTE Keith Bruce's review of Scottish Opera: The Verdi Collection at the City Hall, Glasgow ("Soprano Nakamura shines but it’s a long night", The Herald, February 13).

He writes that these concerts are presumably aimed at those new to opera and as such “was, perhaps asking a bit too much of them (the audience)". He also states it was overly long, and that many members of the audience left early – he writes: “It contributed to a long night with a good number of the audience deciding they had had enough after 10pm."

I would like to point out that as regular opera fans, my friends and I were very disappointed at having to leave early, not because we found this to be too long, but because we and many others depend on public transport as a means of returning home.

It was with great reluctance that we left early. It is embarrassing and disturbs other engrossed members of the audience. It is also frustrating missing the finale.

Public transport is the issue, not the duration nor content of the concert.
Mary O’Donnell, Glasgow

Limit to a doctor's oath

ANENT the recent correspondence on assisted dying (Letters, February 8 & 9), our family doctor (yes, we had such a thing in bygone days) once said that while he had taken an oath never to end life, he had taken no such oath as to maintain life beyond what nature decreed.

Let go, let go.
W Findlay, Glasgow

Sauce for the goose

I WAS disappointed to note Catriona Stewart’s casual use of overt sexism to illustrate her (otherwise well-made) point regrading the inappropriate use of some American words and phrases creeping into our language ("Russians foiled by ‘reaching out’ guff", The Herald, February 14).

She writes: "If I see Ryan Gosling wandering around my neighbourhood I will undoubtedly reach out and try to touch his lovely, lovely face.”

I wonder what she would have written if Mr Gosling had reached out to touch her lovely, lovely face or indeed if any of her male colleagues had written of an uncontrollable urge to try and touch, say, Beyoncé’s lovely, lovely face?

I have little doubt that she would have pilloried Mr Gosling and insisted that he be airbrushed out of La La Land and stripped of his two Academy Awards and his Bafta, and that her colleague be suspended and made to apologise.

She might dismiss this as girly banter and just a bit of a giggle, but try that line if you’re a bloke?
Keith Swinley, Ayr

Send for James Cosmo

OVER lockdown I enjoyed watching Gerry Anderson's 1970 series UFO, in which the Thunderbirds genius substituted actors for authentic puppets. (Including a young James Cosmo, who I wooden dare compare with a marionette, however super.)

It was about a secret planetary defence infrastructure headquartered with typically-contrived plausibility under the car park of a Hertfordshire film studio bearing an exact resemblance to Holby City hospital.

With the sad demise of the medical drama, recent close encounters ("Issue of the day Look, there’s a UFO. Shoot it down!", The Herald, February 14) surely demand the reactivation of the SHADO bunker?
James Macleod, Glasgow

Pet teachers

ANENT school memories of the language of ancient Rome (Letters, February 13 & 14), having dropped Latin after Secondary 3 in 1950, I regret that after so many years, unlike recent correspondents, I am unable to recall the name of my teacher.

I guess it must have been some long-suffering Big Tom, Wee Dick, or unprepossessing Harry.

Now an Amber, Fifi, or Scarlett I would have remembered.
R Russell Smith, Largs

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