On cooing babies and other noisy performances Hot on the heels of Rosamund Pike taking an audience to task about mid-performance texting, we read last week about yet another furore at an arts venue. This time, the story concerns a mother who attended The Tempest at the RSC with a babe in arms. Unsurprisingly, the baby did not appreciate the need to remain silent, many audience members were irritated, and the mother was asked to watch the second half of the performance on a screen.