The Metropolitan Opera in New York is to install new ergonomic seat cushions in its 3,800-seat auditorium.
The new cushions are designed by British company NuBax and are designed to increase blood flow by straightening the spine and tilting the pelvis forwards.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, chief executive of NuBax, Ian Moore, said: ‘[The cushion] kids your pelvis into thinking you’re standing up… Fidgeting is contagious. If the person next to you starts fighting for the armrest or the person behind starts crossing his legs that can interfere with your experience.’
The seats in the auditorium won’t look any different, as a specially shaped piece of denser foam is simply put inside the seat cushion.
The Met is not the first theatre to use the new high-tech seating. The August Wilson Theatre in New York, which is currently showing the musical Jersey Boys has already installed the new cushions.
Willa Burke, the theatre’s house manager told the Wall Street Journal that since the new seating had been installed ‘you don’t hear as much coughing or fluttering with playbills. It is dead silent.’
A first batch of the new seating will be installed at the Met in August.
Polly Bartlett