London theater experiments with 'scrunch testing' as answer to dampen noisy eating at venues

A group of London theaters embroiled in a hot debate over audience snacking is adopting a novel approach: “scrunch testing.”

Nimax Theatres, which operates six venues in the city’s West End, has started sound-testing snack wrappings in a bid to quell the furore, the theater’s head, Nica Burns, confirmed on Wednesday.

The chain – whose theaters include the Palace, Lyric and Apollo – is trying to strike a balance between customers who want to nibble during a performance and those, including actors, increasingly irritated by the noise it can make.

During a phone interview, Burns demonstrated the informal tests the company is carrying out by opening two differently packaged nuts – one audibly louder than the other.

“This is our scrunch testing,” she said.

“That is the process that we’re going through, trying to find packaging of things that people like to eat in theaters that don’t make a noise,” she explained.

Burns said Nimax permits only a range of snacks and confectionery inside auditoriums that it sells on-site.

But an increasing number of theatergoers have been expecting to enter with various edibles, including take-away food.

“We don’t allow food into the theater,” she said. “We have very politely asked people to eat their lunch or their supper outside.”

“This is a big issue for places of entertainment,” she said. “People get uptight about rustlers and eaters, and people get upset when we don’t let them in with food.”