When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other (NT)

Eurgh I really want to see this, guess I won't get to!

This may seem a radical idea but why not put them on sale to the general public?

because they want people to "suffer" in the queue. Specially  with the temperatures plummeting down when the play starts LOL

Only date sold out when I checked early on Saturday afternoon (booking period closed at 4pm so that may have changed) was the first preview. Every other date, including press night, had entry pass when I looked had tickets

The ballot idea really was ridiculous.

Let's hope they are dissuaded by the fact they now have lots of tickets left, and no way of shifting them, without having more "guess what, you've won now too" type emails, or flogging them to the freezing day seat queues.

And get rid of the terrible "queue-it" software whilst they're at it. (The Royal Court has been encouraged to adopt this software for its Monday seats now too... for what reason?...)

Yes, made those of us who didn't get tickets feel very shut out. I didn't think I'd feel this resentful about it but I do. Even if they do relax the system now and release more tickets, cheap train travel won't be possible that close to.

So is there a chance that the booking process for this will turn out to be a huge immersive theatre experiment by the NT, and there won't actually be a play at all?

So, that was weird - for a minute there it let me select a seat after I logged in, even though I didn't enter the ballot let alone win it! They're all back to showing 'not on sale yet' again now, but for a few minutes there were dates with 10+ tickets available.

Ahhhh, ballots.....

Got in quite easily. £23 for front row matinee on the last Saturday - restricted view /looking up but quite relieved as I'd no expectation of getting through after missing the first round.

I am sure there is a camera following me..watching me try buy a ticket at work for Tortured Each Other..then see me being fired for misuse of computer..then fall in to arrears with rent..kicked out of flat..made homeless..then rescued by Director of Tortured Each Other from under Blackfriars Bridgr and brought onto stage of Dorfman a la The Trueman Show. That must be the reason behind the ballot as I can see no other reason for this torture..having 'won' second time around..and still no closer to a seat..

For what it's worth, I hope the NT and other venues do ballots more regularly for events like this one where demand for tickets will hugely outstrip availability.

Granted, the way this has run has been messy, but it's just their first attempt. In the future, being more transparent about how it will work and when & what proportion of tickets will be available will be good, perhaps in conjunction with a more open day-ticketing system.

Ultimately though, once the kinks have been ironed out a ballot will mean that people aren't penalised for not having internet access, or access to lots of computers, or where work/study/other responsibilities means that they can't simply take time off at random times in order to enter the mad rush of a traditional sale.

The balloting system (in theory at least) gives everyone a fair stab at getting tickets and removes the need to set aside an unknown amount of time on ticket day to sit in front of several computers frantically hitting refresh. I suspect that it also helps with things like touts and reduces the load on the IT infrastructure since the surge in web traffic should be reduced and it's less problematic if the website struggles.

I can only imagine how thankless a task it must be for whoever is organising sales on things like this. At the end of the day, no matter what, there will always be a large number of people disappointed. Furthermore, there probably isn't a much chance of spending money on improving the ticketing system, given that the income is fixed (i.e. you can't increase the number of seats sold since it's already ~100%).

I appreciate that I've been lucky enough to get tickets in this second ballot, but I was saying the same thing back when I lost in the initial ballot.