Time Is Money

In the last year, the trend for event theatre seems to have taken a foothold. By event theatre, I mean the epic four to six hour drama that may or may not appear in two parts. Harry Potter and Angels In America come to mind but there's also the Roman plays at the Barbican and several other pieces that will not only take a chunk out of your purse but also out of your weekend. It's not a fashion I warm to particularly and in many ways, it's just as elitist as hoiking the price of the tickets up to £130+ a piece.

I probably spend more time in a theatre in a month that many people will spend there in a lifetime. I am extremely grateful for this luxury but who except ardent fans and theatre critics have time to spend a day in a theatre? I work five days a week and will often be at a theatre in the evening. Two days off will mean catching up with feature writing, conducting interviews and, well, living....

One of the joys of being privileged enough to spend time at the Edinburgh Fringe is that you will invariably see shows that have a running time of no longer the 90 minutes. Most of them are an hour long but part of the joy is experiencing tightly crafted pieces that work within that kind of time frame.   Edinburgh is not exempt however, as The Divide runs at about six or seven hours and despite being written by the estimable Alan Ayckbourn, turns out to be a pretty ropey affair that could probably have been successfully edited to an hour. It is transferring to the Old Vic and God only knows how they're going to sell it on the back of such 'mixed' reviews. 

By all accounts, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Angels In America are both fine pieces of theatre although in truth, I was far more sorry to have missed the Roman plays. My point is however, that for most people time will be far more valuable than sterling. Keeping the prices low may open the theatre up to more people but asking them to stay for the day just assumes that they are part of the leisured classes.