On free tickets
September 24th, 2008 • theatre
So, free theatre tickets. Thoughts in no particular order:
1) More people seeing theatre is good, not least for people who make theatre. At the very least, it will subsidise Monday night takings, when even people who like theatre prefer to stay at home.
2) The logic is presumably this: if they like it, they might come back with their wallets. One problem with this reasoning is that it assumes that good (thoughtful, informed, responsive) decisions have already been made about the kind of theatre being staged.
3) Underpinning that is the realisation that a handful of free tickets on a Monday is going to have near-to-zero impact on the artistic direction of any venue (and it’s “major subsidised venues,” not companies or productions that get the money.)
The eligible venues all have - for better and worse - their own taste in the work that they commission, produce or book, taste that has implicitly or explicitly been given the seal of approval by the bodies that fund them.
4) In other words, when you offer free tickets at established bricks-and-mortar venues (who already have local or Arts Council funding) you are not promoting theatre in general, but a particular kind of theatre. Not necessarily good or bad theatre, but a very definite subset of British performance.
5) The reason that some people think theatre is uninteresting, elitist or otherwise irrelevant might have something to do with the perception of that subset. And I use the term “perception” advisedly because we’re also dealing with an overall cultural picture of theatre, as much as any work in any given venue.
6) How many smaller companies (who have no interest in or appeal to the eligible venues) or theatre works could you support for the same amount of money?
7) Sure, the scheme might encourage people to take a low-cost or no-cost risk on a particular production, and/or on the whole experience of going to see live performance. Provided they do so on a Monday when no-one else wants to go.
8 ) Should we be subsidising transport to theatre across the UK, as in the London area? Or child-care for families who want to go? If we assume that most people aren’t violently opposed to the idea of going to the theatre, what apart from the cost of tickets are the impediments to a good night out?
