Denise Gough speaks out against audience members recording on phones

People, Places and Things star Denise Gough has spoken out against audience members using their phones to record performances.

Writing on Instagram yesterday, the award-winning actress revealed that she had been distracted by someone recording a performance at the Trafalgar Theatre.

“It was so unnerving and I felt desperately exposed throughout the entire performance,” she said. “He stopped and put his phone away when I pointed at him but the damage to my nervous system was done by then.”

Gough, who won the Olivier and Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards for her role as Emma in Duncan Macmillan’s drama, continued:

“I wanted to make a speech in my curtain call (without singling this person out or publicly shaming the person) to ask please to not post such a video online but I wasn’t allowed to by the theatre who were afraid I had gotten it wrong (I haven’t) and other patrons would feel accused wrongly so I want to say here what I wanted to say…

“Thank you all for coming to the show today. It’s my belief that someone filmed the beginning of today’s show from the audience which felt incredibly disconcerting as I could see the phone. I then of course was imagining the ragged filmed performance being online so I’m asking that if you did film anything today please, please don’t put it anywhere. This performance is so difficult to do and to keep doing every day that the thought of being exposed like that makes me feel incredibly anxious. I don’t mind photos of the curtain call and bows but the performance is a sacred thing to me and should only be filmed by professionals which it has been.”

She highlighted that the production will soon be available to watch via the online service NT at Home, “with my full consent”, adding: “Know that anything filmed here during performance by audience members was done without my (or anyone’s) consent and should be viewed that way. Thank you all once again for this afternoon, I’m so grateful to share this work with you in the theatre.”

People, Places and Things, directed by Jeremy Herrin, is about an actress who checks herself into rehab to combat her drug and alcohol addictions. The show had critically-acclaimed runs at the National Theatre and Wyndham’s Theatre, followed by a major UK tour.

It’s currently playing a limited season at the Trafalgar Theatre until 10 August 2024. In a five-star review for WhatsOnStage, Alun Hood labelled the play a “mesmerising slam dunk of a tragicomedy about addiction and its ripple effects”.