'I have been hit, kicked, spat at, sworn at, had insults relating to my sexual preferences'

A survey conducted by the union for workers in the creative industry, Bectu, has revealed wide-spread harrassment and abuse faced by theatre staff across the UK.

Out of over 1,500 theatre workers who were surveyed, 80% said they had experienced acts of bullying, violence, intimidation, harassment, or abuse while at work.

Bectu said the evidence revealed the scale of the problem was much larger than they had anticipated, receiving the highest response rate they had ever had from a survey targeting this sector.

Over 70% of the responses were from ‘customer facing’ roles such as front of house, box office, stage door and hospitality.

Anonymous testimonies submitted in the survey revealed the disturbing nature of the harassment and abuse theatre workers have been subject to during a shift, with one respondent saying they remove an average of two people from a performance for drunken and disorderly behaviour every performance.

Whilst another worker said they had experienced less abuse when working in retail dealing with shop lifters and when working in football stadiums, than in theatres.

Others shared their stories of being physically abused whilst working in theatre venues, including punched, kicked and spat at, while other experiences included insults related to their sexual preferences and being targeted with sexual threats.

Some workers said there was not enough interest in protecting staff in the theatre industry, with repeat offenders often being allowed to return to venues.

Bectu reported an almost unanimous belief from those surveyed that audience behaviours had declined, with over 70% of respondents feeling the issue had got worse post-pandemic.

A sense of audience entitlement and a marked lack of concern for others were among the reasons given for the behaviour, along with venue management having insufficient will to adequately deal with the issues.

Recent research by the union on the sectors skills shortage found that 45% of those surveyed put poor audience behaviour as the reason they have considered leaving the industry.

Going forward, the union is calling on the management of all theatrical venues in the UK to rethink their approach to audience behaviours with the union issuing a Safer Theatres Charter, which calls on venue management to be more proactive and apply a more zero-tolerance approach to audience behaviour.

Philippa Childs, Head of Bectu said the ‘deeply disturbing’ findings are a resounding call for the industry to do better by its workers and for audiences to amend their behaviour.

“The scale and nature of many of the instances reported is deeply disturbing and we will be working with the industry to do all we can to drive urgent and tangible change,” Childs said.

“Across the country people are facing regular aggression and abuse simply for carrying out their jobs. This is wholly unacceptable and we urge venues and industry bodies to commit to working with us to tackle this endemic issue.

“What we’ve uncovered is that anti-social behaviour extends far beyond relatively minor issues of someone talking during a performance or playing on their mobile phone.

“People are coming to work fearing for their safety and dealing with behaviour no one should have to put up with.”

Hannah Davenport is trade union reporter at Left Foot Forward

(Photo credit: Flickr)

Left Foot Forward’s trade union reporting is supported by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust

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