Desire Under The Elms - Crucible Sheffield

It's a bizarre play. I saw a fascinating production of it at the Lyric Hammersmith a few years ago starring a wonderful Denise Gough as Abbie.

Sheffield's my local, so I'm going. I don't know O'Neill's work at all, so I'm looking forward to it. At the season launch earlier this year, Robert Hastie was really enthusiastic about this one.

Theo Ogundipe is FANTASTIC.

Last time I was in the Crucible for Julius Caesar, they'd curtained the back rows off and not put them on sale. I don't know whether they were trying to look more sold out? I'm not thrilled with how they seem to be developing things under the new AD recently. I'm a member and in the last few years there were loads of things I wanted to see, I was over there all the time. But in the last year there seem to have been far fewer productions running for longer, and the prices have gone up too. Plus I'm massively unexcited about this year's Christmas musical. Oh, AND my member discount no longer covers all price bands or all shows, which is making membership far less useful.

I've just remembered as well, for JC they made a sort of walled walkway thing about 2/3 of the way up the seating rows, so the cast could run around up there and use the space. I think they must have blocked off two rows of seats. The tickets on sale for DutE look like they may have kept that perhaps, and then not sold any seats behind that space, apart from the wheelchair spaces. The grey ones near the doors in K and the ones in J are the wheelchair and easy access spaces I believe.

I wonder whether they think they'll sell fewer tickets and so want to concentrate everyone near the front instead of having everyone scattered around the theatre. Seems a shame if so - a couple of years ago things used to sell out regularly.