Hamlet director warns prices may kill theatre
THEATRE will be dead within 50 years unless “disgusting” ticket prices are curbed, an award-winning director has said.
Robert Icke, who is directing Andrew Scott as Hamlet at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London, said younger audiences simply could not afford to attend. Scott only agreed to the play’s West End transfer on the condition that it would offer cheap seats for the under 30s. A study by the Society of London Theatre found the average ticket price is £45, but top-priced tickets for West End shows can cost £240.
“I think it’s disgusting, the pricing of theatre tickets in this country,” said Scott, best known for playing Moriarty in the BBC television series Sherlock.
Speaking on the BBC’S Front Row, he said: “The industry is going to have to address it and sort it out because otherwise we’re dead. In 50 or 60 years, there will be no audience.”