A theatre-goer has demanded a refund after driving more than 60km to switch off his mobile phone during a performance. The man says he’d left his phone at home on the charger but felt compelled to follow the command issued over the loudspeakers before the show.

Jim Spears had bought his ticket in advance for a production of Annie Get Your Gun at the town hall in Lower Wonga, a hamlet about 30km north-east of Gympie in Queensland, Australia.

“I’ve watched a lot of Rodgers and Hammerstein shows on video so I couldn’t resist the advertisement in the Gympie Times to see a live show,” Mr Spears said. “Now, I’ve never been to a musical before and I shelled out my $10 with some anticipation.

“When I sat down, this voice came over saying, ‘For the enjoyment of fellow audience members and as a courtesy to the actors, we ask that you kindly turn off your mobile phones for the duration of the performance.’

“Now it seemed a bit strange to me when my phone was so far away but the voice had a throaty baritone quality that I found quite compelling. And I don’t really understand all that mobile phone technology anyway but the next thing I know I was in my car and on my way home.

“By the time I’d done the round trip the show was already up to the bit where they sing Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better, which is practically at the end.

“They should really tell you before you drive all the way out there into the bush that you have to turn off your mobile phone before you go.”

The self-employed mullock sifter was angry that the ticket had cost him a month’s profits from his prospecting operation.

Lower Wonga Little Theatre director Mavis Chop said Mr Spears “didn’t miss much anyway because the McCarthy girl who plays Annie was sick that night and her mum Sharon was standing in and wasn’t much good frankly”.

She admitted the announcer, Sharon McCarthy’s husband Daryl, had an authoritative voice but denied responsibility for Mr Spears “failing to extract full value from his theatrical experience with us here at Lower Wonga Little Theatre”.

“Why would you have a mobile phone if you’re going to leave it at home anyway?”

The Ripper put that assertion to Mr Spears by telephone. He countered that the battery was flat so he left it home on the charger. Mrs Chop later told The Ripper he should have one of those little chargers that you plug into the cigarette lighter in your car.

Mr Spears also admitted he “stopped to buy smokes” on the way back to Lower Wonga.

Mr Spears was described by neighbours in the caravan park as “easily influenced”.

“He watched a TV show with that hypnotist fellow Ron Rico a year or so ago and went around for a week thinking he was a washing machine,” one neighbour said.

“It was a disturbing sight but on the other hand it saved us a trip to the laundromat that week.”

Gympie, best known as a gold-rush town, is about 160km north of Brisbane, the Queensland capital located 1,000km north of Sydney, which most foreigners think is the capital of Australia but is actually the largest city and is located some 290km north-east of the actual national capital, Canberra.

Lower Wonga is best known for having a funny name.

The author of this story is a lapsed thespian who once played in a school production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. His performance drew widespread praise from his parents. He acknowledges that Annie Get Your Gun was written by Irving Berlin but points out Rodgers and Hammerstein produced it “so bugger off you pedants”.