THEATRE SEATS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18659, 7 April 1926, Page 11

THEATRE SEATS.

TO THE EDITOR 07 "T3E FRESS." Sir, —Surely it is time for Cliristcliurch theatregoers to protest against the primitive methods of management prevailing, in this City. For any attractive performance tlio hooking of scats entails waiting for at laesthalt an hour in a throng ot people struggling towards the '"plan,'' generally in a shop wiiere some other business is being carried on under difficulties. 'liiis completely discounts any beneiit derived Irom reserving seats. Just as weill wait at che early door, and it costs less.

lii more civilised parts of the world booking is done from numerous bureaus for the purpose, or iu the office of any hotel, where a small commission is charged. The seats are booked by telephoning tho theatre where the plan i 5 kept, and the purchaser has the plan under observation when selecting his reservation. Nothing could be simpler nor more satisfactory. But apparently it suits the management here to continue to exploit the public so long as they will put up with it. Having undergone the exhausting and time-consum-ing martyrdom of booking seats, and having been "taken down," for an absurd sum for such a privilege, one's trials are only begiun. On arrival at the theatre, there is a patient mass of patrons jammed in a draughty dungeon-like passage where they slowly make their way towards a half-opened door —where one attendant manfully tries to do the work of three or four—all to save the management expense, and thereby increase the profits. Long after the performance has commenced, for half an hour on Saturday last, this dense mass of people continued to filter in through the halfopen door—banging .seats and arguing, till the conditions resembled a dog-fight more than a well-conducted theatre performance. The performance itself is mere dumb show in the meantime. I consider, Sir, that for the sake of the City's reputation, the City. Council should insist as a condition of license that all places of public entertainment are provided with a proper number of exits and entrances, and sufficient attendants, to see that the public are not exploited, and that the decencies of civilised comfort are obtained by those who are paying for them. I should insist, too, that no tickets ba sold without; the guarantee of a seat. In the future it will only bo a star of the first magnitude who will induce me to subject myself to euch discomforts in pursuit of an evening's entertainment. —Yours, etc., FED-UP.