Donmar Shakespeares at Kings Cross

MAN ALIVE but The Tempest is a boring play I've seen too much of recently. Couldn't they think of anything better?

FREE tickets for under-25s, amazing.



Artists impression - looks like its going to be at the bottom of Kings Boulevard right next to the station with the King's Cross Theatre at the top.

A slight correction - it is Henry IV not Henry VI

Did the Donmar do the Tempest?

A lot of Shakespeare around at the moment and coming up.

Taming the Shrew - Globe
A Midsummer's Night Dream - Globe
Macbeth - Globe
The Merchant of Venice - Globe
King Lear - Barbican
Cymeline - Barbican
Romeo and Julliet - Garrick
Love Labour Lost - Haymarket
Much Ado About Nothing - Haymarket
King Lear - Old Vic
Richard III - Almedia
Hamlet - Almedia
Two Gentlemen of Verona - Sam Wannamaker Theatre
Tempest - Donmar/Kings Cross
Julius Caesar - Donmar/Kings Cross
Henry IV - Donmar/Kings Cross
Henry V - Regents Park Open Air
Twelfth Night - National

Have I missed any? No one can complain of lack of Shakespeare!

The Tempest is a new production.

The Donmar as it is seats 251 people plus the capacity for 20 to stand. This new venue seats 420. Even if you do give 25% of the seats away for free (105 per performance) then that's still 315 left for the elderlies to purchase, which is still 44 seats more than a full-capacity-with-standing Donmar. So I agree it's a large proportion of this new venue, but I'd argue it shouldn't make much difference to us who are deemed elderly enough that clearly we have ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD to spend on theatre tickets.

Hope there's a good range of prices... I don't like going over £20 a ticket, and with ATG booking fees involved, the Donmar is slowly heading towards "for special occasions only" territory.

I'm 20 and a regular theatregoer, i'll surely take advantage of this! And sorry, but it's idiotic to think that people don't value things only because they are free...

It isn't idiotic, it's a known phenomenon: www.eventbrite.com/blog/ds00-why-people-dont-value-free-events/

It's why BBC and ITV routinely issue twice as many tickets as they have room for at the recording of TV and radio shows: because lots of people sign up for them and then don't attend. I'm not saying that there's an exact analogue between a recording of Have I Got News for You and a Donmar production, but it will be interesting to see how much last-minute seat-shuffling has to go on to fill empty seats (as already happens with the existing Front Row seats)

I don't know what I think about the free tix thng and us 'elderlies' making it possible. I have concerns that people will get the freebies who can well afford them. I would have thought a project through schools in inner London would be better. Then the teachers and pupils invest in the project and will feel part of something. You need a bit of a kick into theatre if your parents don't take you so teachers could do this with the help of real theatre people from the Donmar. I think a scheme that is just open to the Internet public is bound to be open to abuse. And as someone who supports theatre I would quite like to be supporting a particular project for a school rather than this nebulous scheme. Or am I being a bit behind the times?

It's true, people don't value what they get for free - at least, not until it is taken away. Then it becomes an outrageous attack on something they felt entitled to.

I was having a poke around the website earlier and they seem to be doing stuff with schools as well as this. I know Josie Rourke has talked on the past about doing workshops with school kids and how amazing that was.

I'm pretty sure this is being funded separately from the schools stuff, which is why we're being asked for donations. I too suspect that the people who benefit will already have the theatre bug - you can take a horse to water...

I wasn't calling you idiotic, just your idea. I simply can't understand how and why people can complain about the fact that for once young people get something for free. I'm a student and we all know that living in London is very expensive, so having something like this surely help more students/young people to go to the theatre. A lot of my uni mates love theatre but never go because it's too expensive for them and there is something very wrong when drama students can't go to theatre. Now, I love the NT policy of 5£ tickets for under 25, this is how I have seen and will see most of their productions in excellent seats. But these tickets sell out very quickly and if you don't buy them on the very day they go on sale there are good chances that you won't see that play. I know a lot of people who would be overjoyed to go to theatre for free and they would never waste this opportunity.

These will go just as fast, so do get your friends up to speed before they go on sale.

The point people are making is that this scheme is trying to reach a new audience, who aren't necessarily drama students, and are not overjoyed about watching a Shakespeare play or aware of the quality of Donnar productions. They are unlikely to see being offered a ticket for free as a valuable opportunity.