Actors in a scene from Shakespeare?s Hamlet

London, April 25: Actors annoyed at the ringing of a mobile phone or the rustling of sweet wrappers while they tread the boards should consider themselves lucky that they were not around in Shakespeare?s day.

The cracking of nuts, crunching of shellfish and spitting of fruit stones were common at the Rose Theatre in the late 16th century, say archaeologists excavating the site at Bankside, central London, in research released yesterday.

The open-air theatre staged Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Henry VI and all of Marlowe's plays in the 18 years before it closed in 1606.

The site was rediscovered and partly excavated in 1989 and preserved under the foundations of an office block.

Studies of rubbish showed the eating habits of the 3,000-strong audience, archaeologist Julian Bowsher reports in the BBC?s History magazine.