A beautiful response to an uncomfortable situation.
For most people, a trip to the theatre with a child is a feat.
But for a parent of an autistic child, it comes with its own unique set of obstacles.
At a recent performance of The King and I in New York, a child — described as autistic — screamed out during the second half of the show.
According to the New York Times, the audience requested the parent and child be removed from the theatre, and the show continued.
One of the ensemble members, Kelvin Moon Loh, noticed the scene and decided to turn to his Facebook page in the aftermath and wrote a heartfelt response.
In his post, he began:
“I am angry and sad.
Just got off stage from today’s matinee and yes, something happened. Someone brought their autistic child to the theater.That being said- this post won’t go the way you think it will.
You think I will admonish that mother for bringing a child who yelped during a quiet moment in the show. You think I will herald an audience that yelled at this mother for bringing their child to the theater. You think that I will have sympathy for my own company whose performances were disturbed from a foreign sound coming from in front of them.
No.
Instead, I ask you- when did we as theater people, performers and audience members become so concerned with our own experience that we lose compassion for others?”
Loh continued that the purpose of the theatre was to bring people together, which despite the child’s behaviour, had been achieved.
He also noted that the child responded to what was a troubling scene for many:
“It so happened that during “the whipping scene”, a rather intense moment in the second act, a child was heard yelping in the audience. It sounded like terror. Not more than one week earlier, during the same scene, a young girl in the front row- seemingly not autistic screamed and cried loudly and no one said anything then. How is this any different?
His voice pierced the theater. The audience started to rally against the mother and her child to be removed. I heard murmurs of “why would you bring a child like that to the theater?”. This is wrong. Plainly wrong.”
Despite being on stage, Loh wrote about being able to see the lengths the mother of the child was going to in order to ensure they remained calm, and reiterated that they both paid the same amount as the other guests.
He concluded his post with this pointed message to all theatregoers:
“A night at the theater is special on any night you get to go.
And no, I don’t care how much you spent on the tickets.”
This is Loh’s post in full:
