What made me love theatre even more? Leaving a bad show at the interval | Zing Tsjeng

I've never been one to vote with my feet. But a veteran-quitter friend showed me the way - and wow, it felt good

We were about 15 minutes in when my companion turned to me and whispered: It's not very good." We were watching a dance-theatre show that initially sounded promising - who doesn't like the sound of a play that has installed its own onstage pub? But after the first overly earnest monologue was succeeded by the second equally earnest monologue, I began to get the sinking feeling she was right. But I was committed, wasn't I? I'd paid for my ticket, I'd put my coat on and left the house in the freezing rain, I was in the second row - I was ostensibly all in. Then the interval was announced and my friend whipped around with a grin on her face: I'm going. Want to come?"

I've always been a people-pleaser. The fear of letting others down or causing a scene bleeds into every aspect of life. I've sat through bad meals and terrible dates, wishing I'd sent both plate and date to the kitchen, but finding myself terminally unable to call quits on either. I've never walked out of a play, which feels, bizarrely, just as personal to me as legging it from a Hinge rendezvous. You're announcing to every audience member in the near vicinity that you're done - it's all so final and declarative. I've come back from intervals to find the stranger next to me has done a runner, leaving me wondering: do they know something that I don't? What made them leave?