THIS is the moment a ‘Karen’ decides to berate fellow theatre-goers after being asked to sit down by the people behind her for blocking their view.
Romain Esteban was attending The RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Tour at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Friday night when the scene unfolded in front of him.
The 33-year-old watched on as the unidentified woman stood brazenly in front of other attendees, blocking their view, before proceeding to unleash a foul-tempered barrage at those behind her.
The video begins with the middle-aged woman standing up and slowly waving her arms aloft during drag performer Danny Beard’s time on stage, whilst the rest of the venue around her remain seated.
The on-screen text reads: “Drunk Karen makes the person in front of us cry and then starts attacking everyone around.”
The woman appears to be trying to get the people next to her up and dancing too, whilst a woman dressed in blue looks to be reassuring those sitting behind her over her friend’s actions.
The standing woman then turns to a young woman behind her to give her a glare, before leaning in and confronting her.
After listening to the young woman’s pleas, the standing woman appears to look around and asks who exactly is asking her to sit down.
Those behind her look to gesture that everyone is requesting that she remain seated, to which the woman then shouts: “You’re telling me to sit down? F**k you.”
She then gestures her middle finger at the people sitting behind her twice whilst ranting obscenities that are drowned out by the music onstage.
The woman then turns to address her friend in blue once again, but seemingly stands by her claim, refusing to be made to sit down.
The video was uploaded to social media by Romain on Sunday (30 APR) with the caption: “I just wanted to enjoy Danny Beard’s performance.”
The video has since received over 50,000 likes and more than 3,000 comments from users left shocked at the woman’s brazen rudeness to those around her.
One user wrote: “Hope she sees this and feels ashamed of herself.”
Another commented: “The person with her is mortified and stressed.”
A third said: “You can tell when people don’t get out much.”
Another replied: “Everyone is being far too polite. They should have all joined forces (even her companion who didn’t look impressed) and got her out.”
A fifth quipped: “She’d be wearing my drink.”
Another added: “Be interesting to see her reaction if the person in front of her stood up all night.”
Speaking today Romain said: “Somebody in the audience, a man in the row before us, politely asked ‘Karen‘ to sit down.
“She then turned around and yelled at the first person she saw, the young lady two rows in front of us with blonde short hair and the sequined gold jacket.
“She gave her that dark look – you can see again later in the video – and called her names then flipped her off.
“Then she turned back facing the stage, that’s when the person two rows in front of us started crying.
“The friend with the silver jacket tried to comfort her, the lady wearing the blue dress next to ‘Karen’ seemed to feel very sorry and tried to apologise for her, I think.
“After a minute ‘Karen’ turned again and this is where the video starts.
“Everyone around us started asking her to calm down and sit down for that one performance.
“Seems like a lot of people in the comments are confused about why people behind her just didn’t stand as well, but everybody stayed seated.
“This show wasn’t a concert, more of a succession of different types of performances.
“She was blocking everyone’s view and honestly even if we stood up as well it was too difficult to see anything since unlike the rest of the venue this area is flat.
“But really the issue was more how aggressive she was even before I started recording – it just felt like she was looking for a fight.
“The two young people wearing the gold and silver jackets left before the end of the show unfortunately.
“I saw someone – I believe from the staff – talking to them, but I don’t have more information on what happened.
“Since I posted the video, someone who sat next to ‘Karen’ came forward and it seems she was attending the event with her sister, the lady with the flower dress, the one that ‘Karen’ tried to have standing at some point during the video.
“They didn’t know her at all and apparently were both trying to ignore her the entire show, but they did confirm she was intoxicated.”
Speaking today a spokesperson for the Royal Albert Hall said: “Everyone at the Royal Albert Hall is committed to creating a welcoming and safe environment, and we do not tolerate or condone physical or verbal abuse to staff or customers.
“Our visitor services team can and do exclude anyone they see acting in this way.
“If audience members see this sort of behaviour, we would urge them to speak to a member of staff so that we are able to address it.”
