What on earth is happening out there in theatreland? It's like the G20 riots. Reported instances of actors losing it with disruptive audience members mid-performance and yelling at them to stop phoning/taking photographs/giggling/whispering/coughing/breathing (delete as necessary), seem to be as regular a feature as opening nights themselves. Sometimes the victims even have the temerity to answer back. If things get much worse, audiences will have to be safely kettled in the circle bar till the performance is over.

Actor Patrick Stewart apparently lost his rag with an autograph hunter outside the stage door of the King's theatre in Edinburgh, after a performance of Waiting for Godot. "Are you the arsehole who was sitting in the front tonight?" was his introductory comment, before bellowing "You know, what I really want to know is how you can sleep at night? I really hope you're pleased with yourself."

Apparently, the importunate individual had been spied earlier by Stewart trying to take a sneaky photograph of him and his co-star, Ian McKellen, during the curtain call – in clear contravention of explicit warnings that photography was not permitted. While most punters will have gone to see Vladimir and Estragon, others are clearly there to gawp at Picard and Gandalf.

To many it may seem that thesps are in danger of forgetting whom it is who pays their wages. Oscar Wilde famously said the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about at all: and if leading actors don't want to be pestered for a little piece of their magic, they shouldn't be in live theatre. Should they?

The flashing of cameras and waving of mobile phones at eye-level can just about be absorbed in Grease or We Will Rock You, but in straight plays, in intimate venues, these activities can be a nightmare - particularly as the shutters and flashes always seem to activate during the most dramatic pause or just before the punchline.

Many a beleaguered stage actor would agree, that it's virtually impossible these days to get through a show without somebody in the audience treating the experience as if it were just another heritage landmark to be captured and recorded for the folks back home.

Of course when you're a big star, the problem – and the temptations – are magnified 100%. I've frequently witnessed well-known actors besieged by requests at the stage door to sign up to 10 or 15 identical prints of themselves in some iconic TV performance – often by people who haven't even seen the show.

I suspect this recent outburst of Stewart's is an example of the straw that broke the camel's back; Godot isn't easy to get right, even if everything's going for you. And I've no idea how much a signed photograph or programme of a leading Trekkie would fetch nowadays, but I wouldn't mind betting it would be enough to feed a family of four for days.

There's a story I heard a few years back – possibly apocryphal, but I suspect not – from the time Stewart was playing Macbeth in the West End. A young teenager had allegedly been waiting outside the stage door ever since curtain down on the Saturday matinee, with a picture of the actor in full warp factor five mode in the hope of getting a signature. With night (and the second show) fast approaching, he was still there. Eventually Stewart (who I suspect has a soft heart), weakened and broke his own rule about gratuitous autograph-giving by popping upstairs to gratify the child's dearest wish. By midnight, it was up for auction on eBay.