Downton Abbey’s Penelope Wilton is right about theatre’s high prices

Young audiences are put off by expensive seats

This week’s Olivier Awards were notable for a number of good decisions, not least the best actor award to Mark Strong for his memorably compelling performance in A View from the Bridge. But perhaps the moment I shall remember most came the morning after. It was an exchange on the Radio 4 Today programme between presenter James Naughtie and Penelope Wilton, who had won the best actress award the night before for her performance in the play Taken at Midnight.

Congratulating her, Naughtie observed that more young people were going to the theatre. Yes, replied Wilton, but there would be even more if seats weren’t so expensive.

How refreshing, in the aftermath of a night’s glitz and glamour, for a winner to point out that her art form was pricing itself out of the reach of the new audiences it should be nurturing.

Perhaps realising that she had let the cat out of the bag, Penelope Wilton then rowed back a little, suggesting that there were often discounts to be found if one searched hard enough. But that’s not the best message we can give young would-be theatregoers – theatre is too expensive for you, but if you take time and energy to hunt for them, there may be discounts out there, somewhere.

Really, Penelope Wilton had it right the first time. Theatre has become prohibitively expensive for younger audiences, who are more likely to choose the cinema, with its cheaper prices, for a night out. What’s particularly pernicious is that the traditional “cheap seats” in theatres, the gods as they used to be known, are no longer cheap. Balcony tickets are regularly priced at around £30. So the cheap entry point to theatre is increasingly disappearing.

So, congratulations to Penelope Wilton. A star not just of stage, but also of TV’s Downton Abbey, she could have spent that interview basking in her own success, or giving compliments to her fellow nominees and fellow winners, or giving listeners some Downton gossip. Instead, she made a political point, and a point likely to embarrass theatre owners and producers. It needs the famous names to highlight the abuses in their own art form.

There’s no shortage of interviews with actors and actresses. They can be found every single day, either in print and online, or on TV or radio. But rarely do they mention the subject of ticket price, and how those running their own art form conspire greedily to discourage young people. Imagine if every performer followed Penelope Wilton’s lead. The embarrassment heaped on owners and producers would be intense, and a move towards cheaper tickets inevitable. Then, and probably only then, would the audience demographic change.

Amazon needs to do more about booking fees

On the subject of seat prices, Amazon has decided to enter the theatre tickets market in quite a big way. Tickets for all shows playing in London’s West End can now be purchased from its site. This sounds like a good idea. Amazon is the place we go to for books, CDs, DVDs and much else. A reminder when we enter the site that we can also see some great theatre, and buy tickets there and then has to be good news for the art form, and for audiences. Amazon adds that there will be special offers between now and 30 April, including no or reduced booking fees. Oh dear. So, no or reduced booking fees count as a “special offer” and only for a limited period. It would be a much more welcome initiative, if it excluded booking fees completely.

A northern accent shouldn’t get Dr Who exterminated

That fine actor Christopher Eccleston suggested this week that his surprisingly short time playing the part of Dr Who in 2005 might have been because he fell out with BBC executives over the question of accent. It seems that Eccleston wanted to give Doctor Who a northern accent, whereas the executives felt that the Doctor should stick to received pronunciation. Eccleston told Radio Times: “I wanted to move him away from RP for the first time, because we shouldn’t make a correlation between intellect and accent.” I’m with Eccleston on this. Quite why Dr Who can roam time and space, but has to have been educated in the home counties, makes little sense. There should be nothing to disqualify a time lord from having a northern accent. A Dalek, on the other hand, might sound a little weird with one.

d.lister@independent.co.uk

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