Words of mouth

My heart really goes out to some of the acting groups around Perth and the horrendous bills left after putting on a show.

As Walter Plinge said about ‘Ghosts’, in the past it has been heavy going and boring. The latest production really put life into it, clarified the relationships and characters; for the first time, the whole production was most satisfying. I paid $29 for a ticket and thought it well worth it; however, one gets a little peed off when the tickets are reduced to $19 later in the season, although I can understand the producer’s logic – and desperation. I understand that this is a school text, perhaps instead of hiring a theatre, a larger audience could be reached by actually going to several schools. There was only a small set and few props to deal with. The lighting could be tricky, but many schools now have decent rigs. $10 a ticket and free venue must be more attractive.

As you may gather I get out on a regular basis, and few venues are correctly heated, have even semi-comfortable seating and the correct rake, so one does not need to spend all night looking around the person in front – hence I live in the front row.

A raffle ticket ($2), a programme ($2), a cup of coffee in the interval ($3) and parking often $5 and regularly $8 – 10, adds another $15-20 to the ticket price.

The choice of the play is vitally important. One theatre recently had ‘Virginia Woolf’ on, it could have been the best production this year, but the thought of seeing this – or even worse another version of ‘The importance of being earnest’ - and I would rather die.

There are nights, usually Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when there is no show on anywhere in Perth. At the ends of the week, there can be several shows all on at once. Imagine going to Melbourne and there is no theatre show to see, there is always a reasonable choice.

Then there are the lean periods when every excuse in the book has been used –

‘it is a quiet time of the year’ - are there really times when no one is interested in a night out at the cinema, quiz night or theatre for weeks on end?

‘No one comes after Easter’ – they won’t if there is nothing on.

‘We had a play on last month and it takes four weeks to bump out and get the next show going’ – then why don’t Community Theatres have two teams or ‘companies’ within their setup?

Very few theatres send me a ‘general public’ email circular about their shows. I often have to search their websites. If you have a list of regulars, then send an email – they are free to post out. Websites? Wow, some have not been up dated for months; one is still, showing what is ‘coming up in March ’12’.

‘The audiences have dropped off’ - with a play in each theatre about every two months, the habit of going to see the plays drops off.

Young people never even consider going to the theatre, after all ‘where is it?’, ‘boring’, ‘it is usually closed’ and ‘we have never met anyone who has been’. One group north of the river had a different children’s group of dancers and singers in their pantomime each night, so naturally the proud parents and grannies rushed from all over – a full house each night, just to see little Johnnie.

Hall hire cost is totally ridiculous. If the theatres, community or professional were used every week the charges would drop dramatically. If a restaurant opened 15% of the time, imagine the price of a meal.

As a Consumers’ Magazine has said recently, the ticketing services are amongst Australia’s the worst businesses. Thankfully, many theatres are now fitting their own booking systems.

Reviewing plays? The director can write a review – ready for publishing - and send it along with a photo, to each of the local newspapers who will happily print it. Alternatively, you could write a review for a friend’s play and then ask them to return the compliment for yours.

Finally give the punters what they want, and occasionally slip in a quality classic. Make sure that the welcome is warm and that the venue is worth the entry fee. Even if a show is wonderful but the place a dump, the public may not come back. The producer or director should mingle in the interval – without speaking, just listening – or at the end, stand outside the door or in the car park and listen to the real feelings about the show.

To all the theatre groups who work so hard for no return, a very many thanks.