Theatre-goers sometimes turn nasty. The premiere in Paris of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1913 led to fistfights in the aisles, and the composer Saint-Saëns stormed out over the misuse of a bassoon. A performance of Steve Reich’s Four Organs at Carnegie Hall in 1973 led to catcalls and jeering, and caused one woman to bang her head repeatedly on the stage, begging for the music to stop.

The most notable theatre protest of all happened in Brussels on 25 August 1830, when opera-lovers emerging from a performance of Daniel Auber’s La Muette de Portici joined rioters in an uprising that overthrew the rule of the Dutch king William I and brought about Belgian independence. That sort of success would not be seen again until the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989, started in the Realistic Theatre in Prague, spurred on by the students of the Academy of Performing Arts and led by dissident playwright Václav Havel.

The stink-bomb protest at de Singel may or may not have been the work of some Catholic protestors (police are investigating) but their distaste for the work, in which a giant image of Christ (pictured) is stoned, led them to march singing and praying on the theatre, and to write angry letters to the management, sponsors and the minister of culture. The Catholic students’ union called it “shock for shock’s sake”. Castellucci, meanwhile, said the protests were “an attack on artistic freedom”. The production went on to play to full houses, and closed its run last weekend.