Sir Derek Jacobi: High Ticket Prices Make Theatre 'Elitist'

The price of tickets is making the theatre elitist, Sir Derek Jacobi has claimed, putting the industry in danger of being left up a certain "creek without a paddle".

Speaking after collecting a lifetime achievement award at the Olivier Awards ceremony on Sunday, the actor said he had been shocked to see prices of £150 or more for a seat in the stalls in London's West End.

Data by the Society of London Theatre for 2019 found that the average ticket price for its member venues, which include all of the commercial West End and London's leading subsidised theatres, was £52.17. When a "dynamic pricing" ticketing model was introduced last year for the West End production of Cock, there was shock when it was revealed that some seats cost £400. Currently, seats for Cabaret and A Streetcar Named Desire can come in at over £300.

Speaking to The Guardian, Jacobi said that when he first became a passionate theatregoer, "it was much easier" to see plays cheaply. he said. The rise in prices is one of the biggest changes he had seen in the theatre industry over his career, he continued. "I'm not on the production side, the business side, so perhaps I'm talking through my hat but when they say it's £150 for a seat in the stalls, I understand that - and it shocks me," he said.

"I'm not an economist - I don't know the basics of how a theatre survives without money but it certainly can't survive without bums on seats either and if the money is prohibitive to bums on seats then we're up shit creek without a paddle."

The cost of living crisis meant theatregoing was at particular risk of becoming elitist, said Jacobi, who said he was very conscious, "particularly in these straitened times, of [theatregoers] thinking more than twice about using your hard-earned money to go and enjoy yourself".

Photo Credit: Pamela Raith

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