Have Audiences Always Been Rowdy?观众一贯如此吵闹吗？

When Harry Styles was pelted with chicken nuggets while on stage at New York’s Madison Square Gardens， he took it in his stride1. “Interesting approach，” smiled Styles， who has also weathered kiwi fruits， Skittles and bunches of flowers while performing. But when a mystery object hit him in the eye at a concert in Vienna， he wasn’t laughing but， rather， wincing in pain.

在纽约麦迪逊广场花园的舞台上被人扔鸡块时，哈里·斯泰尔斯泰然处之。“这方式真有趣。”斯泰尔斯笑着说，他在表演时还挨过猕猴桃、彩虹糖和花束的砸。但在维也纳的一场演唱会上，有个不明物体击中了他的眼睛，他没有笑，而是眉头紧皱，表情痛苦。

It was in a string of incidents where audience members have hurled potentially dangerous objects at performers. Drake was hit on the arm by a flying phone. Country singer Kelsea Ballerini was struck in the face with a bracelet. Bebe Rexha was taken to hospital and needed multiple stitches after a phone hit her in the eye. A man， since charged with assault， told police he thought it “would be funny” to try and hit the singer.

观众向表演者投掷潜在危险物品的事件众多，斯泰尔斯的遭遇只是其一。德雷克曾被一部从人群中飞出的手机砸中手臂。乡村歌手凯尔西·巴莱里尼曾被手镯砸到脸。碧碧·雷克萨让手机砸伤了眼睛，被送去医院缝了很多针。被控伤人的男子告诉警方，他觉得拿东西砸这位歌手“会很有趣”。

It’s not just live music seeing disruptive behaviour. Police were called to a performance of The Bodyguard musical in Manchester when rowdy audience members reacted with “unprecedented levels of violence” to staff. At other venues there has been everything from “heated arguments” to full-on brawls.

破坏行为不仅仅出现在现场音乐会。音乐剧《保镖》在曼彻斯特上演时，吵闹的观众以“前所未有的暴力”对待工作人员，警方接警后随即赶到现场。在其他场合，破坏行为从“激烈争论”到大打出手，应有尽有。

Across the cultural sphere， it feels like audiences are misbehaving. At a Las Vegas show， Adele weighed in2， saying： “Have you noticed how people are like， forgetting… show etiquette at the moment？”

在整个文艺领域，观众似乎都在捣乱。在拉斯维加斯的一场演出中，阿黛尔站出来说道：“你们注意到没有，此刻人们好像都忘了观演礼仪？”

Billie Eilish meanwhile， says this kind of thing， while “infuriating”， is nothing new. “I’ve been getting hit on stage with things for like， literally， six years，” she told the Hollywood Reporter. Dr Kirsty Sedgman， a senior lecturer in theatre at the University of Bristol who specialises in audience research， also cautions against calling it a new trend. “People have always thrown things on stage，” says Sedgman， whose latest book， On Being Unreasonable， explores widening divisions in society over how we use public space. “Whether that’s fruit as a way to signify displeas-ure， or softer items like underwear and flowers as a signal of adoration.” Back in 1775， a performer in Sheridan’s The Rivals stopped the show when he was pelted with an apple.

比莉·艾利什也说，这种事情虽然“令人愤怒”，但并不是什么新鲜事。她在接受《好莱坞报道》的采访时表示：“我在舞台上被各种东西砸，差不多有六年了。”布里斯托尔大学的戏剧高级讲师柯丝蒂·塞奇曼博士专门从事受众研究，她也提醒说，不要把观众闹事称为一种新趋势。“人们总是往舞台上扔东西。”塞奇曼说，她的最新著作《论不合理》探讨了社会各界对“如何使用公共空间”产生的日益扩大的分歧。“无论是扔水果表示不满，还是扔内衣和鲜花等柔软的物品来表示崇拜。”早在1775年，谢里丹戏剧《情敌》的一名表演者就因被人扔苹果而中止演出。

So are things really any worse now？ “If you’d asked me that before lockdown， I would have said that things have always been thus，” says Sedgman. “As far back as the ancient Greeks people like Plato were complaining about what he called a vicious theatrocracy3， where audiences who were previously happy to sit quietly suddenly wanted to use their tongues and start cheering and screaming. And the norm in Shakespeare’s time was to watch performances at the same time as more bodily forms of consumption， such as eating and drinking and talking and socialising.”

那现在问题真的更严重了吗？塞奇曼说：“疫情封控前如果你问我这个问题，我会说向来如此。早在古希腊时期，柏拉图等人就在抱怨此事。柏拉图称这种现象为‘邪恶的剧场政体’，观众前一秒还乐于安静地坐着观赏，突然就想说话，然后开始欢呼和尖叫。莎士比亚时代的常态是，人们在观看表演的同时身体也不闲着，比如一边吃吃喝喝，一边聊天社交。”

The idea that audiences should sit and listen quietly is a relatively recent expectation. Post-pandemic though， Sedgman does think something has changed. “To some extent we’ve been having these debates about live performance， whether the norm should be more quiet and subdued or more active and exuberant for a very long time， but I work with a lot of people throughout the cultural industries， and the message seems to be pretty much unanimous that since lockdown ended， the situation has fundamentally shifted.”

观众要安静地坐着听，这是一个相对较新的期望。然而，塞奇曼的确认为，疫情过后情况已然有所改变。“从某种程度上说，我们很长时间以来一直在讨论，现场表演的氛围应该是更安静、克制，还是更活跃、热情，但是我和文艺产业的很多人有接触，大家似乎一致认为，自疫情封控结束后情况已从根本上发生了变化。”

That bears out4 in a report by the UK’s Broadcasting， Entertainment， Communications and Theatre Union （Bectu） which found that 90% of theatre staff had witnessed bad behaviour—and 70% believed things had got worse since the pandemic.

英国广播娱乐电影与剧院工会的一份报告证实了这一点。报告显示，90%的剧院员工目睹过不良行为，70%的员工认为疫情后情况更糟了。

“It’s not all audiences by any means， but for a lot of people， there’s a growing sense of what I call ‘don’t-tell-me-what-to-do-itis’，” says Sedgman. She believes we’re seeing a breakdown in social contracts—the behavioural norms and rules of engagements that keep us all ticking along5 together nicely.

塞奇曼说：“并非所有观众都如此，但在许多人心中，我所谓的‘不要告诉我该怎么做’意识越来越强。”她认为，我们正在目睹社会契约的崩溃——也就是让我们所有人和睦相处的行为规范和规则正在崩溃。

People are thirsty for live entertainment again， but increasingly want it on their terms—especially when ticket prices are soaring. “People are coming with actively competing ideals about what they want that experience to be like，” says Sedgman. “Some people want to not be disturbed by others chatting or eating or drinking， or have phones blocking their way. Other people want to maybe take a step backwards to the time when the arts were a more sociable experience. The difficulty is that those pleasures are irreconcilable.”

人们再次渴望现场娱乐，但越发希望以自己的方式观看，尤其是在票价飙升的时期。塞奇曼说：“对于想要什么样的体验，来看演出的人们各有各的理想，他们之间的分歧不小。有些人不想受到别人聊天、吃喝的打扰，也不想被手机挡住视线。还有些人可能想倒退一步，回到艺术更注重社交的时代。困难在于众人的喜好无法调和。”

Why though， would a so-called fan of an artist want to risk hurting them by throwing things？ One explanation is that social media has fuelled parasocial relationships6—in which fans develop a strong but one-sided connection with celebrities. “Live events are one place where you actually come into that same space with your beloved celebrity，” says Sedgman. “So for some people， perhaps there’s a desire to break through that fourth wall7 separating them from us and to actively insert your presence into their world.” Giving P！nk a giant wheel of Brie or—like one fan recently—throwing your mother’s ashes to her， is certainly one way to make her aware of your existence.

然而，为什么艺人的所谓粉丝会冒着伤害他们的风险，朝他们扔东西？一种解释是，社交媒体助长了准社会关系，即粉丝在自己与名人之间建立的一种紧密的单边联系。塞奇曼说：“在现场活动中，你真的能与喜爱的名人同处一个空间。所以有些人或许希望打破将名人与我们隔开的第四堵墙，冒然闯入名人的世界。”扔给“粉红佳人”一块巨大的布里干酪，或像最近的一位粉丝那样把自己母亲的骨灰扔给她，无疑是在这位歌手面前刷存在感的一种方式。

Many artists though， are now appealing directly to fans to stop throwing things. One UK theatre group has toned down its marketing material to discourage rowdy attendees. But there’s a balance between keeping people safe and over-policing behaviour. At a gig， Taylor Swift intervened to stop a security guard from allegedly harassing fans.

而现在许多艺人直接呼吁粉丝不要再扔东西了。英国一家剧团已弱化其营销材料的宣传力度，以劝离吵闹的观众。然而，要在保护人们的安全与过度执法的行为之间取得平衡。在某场演唱会中，泰勒·斯威夫特出面阻止了一名涉嫌骚扰粉丝的保安。

Sedgman works with venues to develop policies that allow audiences to engage， while also protecting the safety of staff， performers and other audience members. “Of course we have to draw lines between acceptable and unacceptable， reasonable and unreasonable， legal and illegal，” she says. “But we also need to think carefully about who those rules privilege and prioritise and who they exclude or even harm. It’s young people， working-class people， people of colour who tend to have their behaviour surveilled and judged.”

塞奇曼与场馆合作制定政策，让观众参与的同时，又保护工作人员、表演者和其他观众的安全。她说：“当然，我们必须界定可接受与不可接受、合理与不合理、合法与非法，但我们也要斟酌这些规则给谁带来了特权和优先权，又排斥甚至伤害了谁。年轻人、工薪阶层和有色人种的行为往往会遭到监督和评判。”

Meanwhile though， she thinks the incidents could be a bellwether for deeper issues. “Live performance has always been a laboratory space for figuring out what it means to be together，” she explains. “Pretty much every time society goes through a big period of unrest， that unrest starts to ferment and explode in live performance first. Audiences are a kind of canary in the coal mine8 for much bigger frustrations and divisions starting to bubble over. It’s important that we pay attention to what’s happening in the cultural sphere. It’s an indicator of what’s happening to us as a society.”

同时，塞奇曼也认为，观众闹事可能预示着更深层次的问题。她解释道：“现场表演向来是一个实验空间，能检验群体聚集意味着什么。几乎每逢社会经历激烈动荡时期，这种动荡都会首先在现场表演中开始发酵，进而爆发。观众就如同煤矿里的金丝雀，能提前感知到更大的挫折和分歧渐渐浮现。关注文艺领域的动态很重要，因为它是社会动态的一个风向标。”

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者）

1 take sth in stride〈习语〉从容处理；泰然处之。

2 weigh in（在讨论、辩论中等）发表有分量的意见，发挥作用。

3柏拉图在《法律篇》（The Laws）里把和贵族政体（aristocracy）相对立的政体叫作“剧场政体”，而非“民主政体”（democracy），意思就是文艺当权就等于群氓当权。 4 bear sth out 证实；为……作证。

5 tick along 顺利进行。

6此处同准社会互动（parasocial interaction），指受众通过大众媒体与媒体中人物接触时产生的一种心理关系。在互动过程中，受众会感觉自己与媒体中的人物有直接的联系，对方就如同自己身边的亲密朋友一般。这种互动一般具有单边性，受众对媒体中的人物非常了解，但媒体中的人物却不了解受众。 7戏剧术语，指镜框式舞台上，人们想象的位于舞台台口的一道实际上并不存在的“墙”。表演者直接与观众互动时，可谓“打破了第四堵墙”。

8金丝雀对有害气体的敏感度超过人体，所以金丝雀就成了过去矿工们的报警器。矿工带着金丝雀下井，如果金丝雀暴毙，就说明井下有危险气体，需要立即逃生。如今，“煤矿里的金丝雀”多用作比喻，指危险的先兆。