Rant: What is it about German school groups and Shakespeare's Globe?

Don't get me wrong. I love Shakespeare's Globe. I'm there as much as I remember to, I try and make it to most shows in a season, I enjoy the atmosphere, the night sky and the stark lights, the often fantastic acting and so many other things about this place. But there's nothing that annoys me more than a Globe audience full of German schoolchildren.

I realise this might sound faintly xenophobic, but it's really not. Of all the schoolgroups in all the varying corners of the globe, it is pretty much always the Germans who have to be conducted out of the auditorium, who talk at normal volume throughout productions, who wear rain ponchos when it's not raining and rustle around in them noisily throughout sensitive moments, whose teacher seems to be mysteriously absent or lacking in any sort of care. And the reason why this makes so little sense is that Germany is renowned for the way it treats performers - English actors flock to work there - in both its professionalism and perks. So why is it that they seem unable to behave themselves when they visit the Globe?

It's definitely not a schoolgroup thing. Most are capable of behaving absolutely appropriately, no matter where they're from. Today I stood next to a group of international students from Bangkok. They weren't completely perfect (one had played Beatrice in a school production and started the production saying her lines along with the show, until a judicious tap on the shoulder quieted her down), but they too were distracted by the noisiness of the Germans - and when the international students' teacher asked the girl behind to be quiet, as she turned back, the girl made an extremely rude face at her. We were all schoolchildren once, but I'm pretty sure I never disrespected the rest of an audience in the way these children do.

Speaking with the ushers afterwards, many of the group had to be removed from the theatre during the show. They kept trying to come back, to go round the back of the auditorium where the actors move around, to climb over the walls of the Globe (!), and all the time their teacher did not seem to have a care in the world for where they were. It makes a mockery of the time spent queuing for those who really care, for those who came to be sucked into some wonderful theatre.

Oh, and, hey two English guys who started shouting at Charles Edwards 'just kiss her, Jesus!'... yes, we are all watching this production too, and would quite like to hear the lines and not your inane commentary. Thanks.