Actress's finale silences mobile phone menace

THE National Theatre actress Maureen Beattie, who is playing the role of Iago's wife in a production of Othello in Hong Kong, has emerged as a heroine in the struggle against excessive use of mobile phones, writes Stephen Vines.

Following a particularly grievous outbreak of mobile phone calls during a National Theatre performance at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Miss Beattie took it upon herself to berate the audience after a final curtain call. "Everyone cheered, I could not get them to stop," she said.

Few artistic performances in Hong Kong get away without the menace of mobile phone interruption. Cinema-goers not only receive calls, they also make them during parts of the film they regard as rather slow moving.

The theatre where Othello was playing is now considering requiring patrons to check in their mobile phones in the same way that cameras and tape recorders are taken in.