点评:I attended this venue last night (11th oct) to watch the Reece Shearsmith Things I Took From The Dark book tour. The show itself was brilliant. The venue however was a massive disappointment. We arrived at 19:05 (the show started at 19:30) to be ushered to the back of a huge queue that went right around the block. When we got to inside the venue (about 19:15) we were then directed to another queue on the stairs. When we got to the first floor we showed our tickets to a very helpful lady who directed us up to the next floor where our seats were. More queueing on stairs. When we got to the doors for the balcony the show was starting. We were barked at by another lady, "The show has started, just find a seat!" It was obvious that the block that we had bought tickets for was completely full and we were then forced to go to the side, right to end, and actually ended up sitting behind the stage with no view of the screen that was used throughout the first half of the show. The seats that we had paid for were £45. The seats we ended up in were the £20 seats. This is absolutely disgusting. There was clearly no proper checking of tickets to direct people to the seats they had actually paid for. When I say "seats", these were cushioned seats pads on the floor, not actual chairs. When the second half of the show started, 2 of the venue staff (a cleaner and a member of security) started messing about with a fan that was on the wall right near us, chatting away as they were doing it. There was no need to be doing this. The venue wasn't overly warm. Nobody around us had complained and the didn't get the fan to work anyway. It was completely unnecessary and extremely distracting.
After the show, trying to leave the auditorium, we were getting contradicting directions from staff, one telling us to go through one door, another telling us we couldn't go that way. I have never seen anything so disorganised. If there had been an emergency, we wouldn't have stood a chance of getting out safely.
The building is grotty, in desperate need of a lick of paint and a good clean.
This was a sold out show. The staff were clearly not prepared for such a crowd. We are regular theatre goers and have visited venues all over the country, both big and small, but we have never experienced anything like we did last night. I wish that we had cancelled the tickets when he announced that he was doing a show in Liverpool and gone there instead.
We have reached out to FANE (the organisers) about the seating allocation. To be charged £45 each for seats worth half the price is disgusting.
Like I said at the start of this review, the show was amazing. I can only imagine how much better it would have been if we had actually been in the seats we paid for. I would not go to this venue again, though.
翻译:昨晚(10月11日),我前往这个场馆观看里斯·希尔史密斯的《Things I Took From The Dark》新书巡展。演出本身非常精彩。不过场馆的服务实在令人大失所望。我们在19:05到达现场(演出于19:30开始),却被安排排在一个绕了整个街区的长队末尾。大约19:15我们终于进入场馆内,却又被指引去楼梯处排队。我们到达一楼后,向一位非常热心的女士出示了门票,她指引我们上到下一层楼,那里就是我们的座位区。又在楼梯上排了会儿队。当我们走到通往楼厅的门口时,演出已经开始了。另一个女士冲我们喊道:“演出开始了,赶紧找个位子坐下吧!”显然,我们购票所在的区域已经座无虚席,因此我们被迫走到最边上,也就是最远端的位置。实际上,我们最后坐在了舞台后面,根本看不到演出前半段所使用的屏幕。我们花钱购买的座位价格是45英镑,而我们最终坐到的却是20英镑的座位。这简直令人作呕。显然没有任何人仔细核对门票,以将观众引导至他们实际付费购买的座位上。我所说的“座位”,其实是铺在地上的带垫子的区域,并非真正的椅子。当演出的后半段开始时,有两名场馆工作人员(一名清洁工和一名保安)开始摆弄就在我们附近墙上的风扇,一边弄还一边闲聊。其实根本没必要这么做。当时场馆内也并不算太热。我们周围没人抱怨,而且他们最终也没能把风扇打开。这种做法完全没有必要,还极其分散注意力。
演出结束后,当我们试图离开观众厅时,工作人员给出的指示却相互矛盾。一个指示我们走某扇门,另一个却说我们不能走那条路。我从未见过如此混乱的局面。如果当时发生紧急情况,我们根本没有可能安全撤离。
这栋大楼破旧不堪,急需粉刷和彻底清洁。
这场演出的票早已售罄。工作人员显然没有为如此多的人群做好准备。我们是常看戏的观众,也去过全国各地大大小小的剧场。不过我们从未经历过像昨晚这样的情况。真希望在他宣布要在利物浦举办演出时我们就把票退了,然后亲自去那里观看。
我们已经就座位分配问题联系了主办方FANE。为价值仅相当于原价一半的座位却要支付45英镑的费用,实在令人难以接受。
正如我在评论开头所说,这场演出棒极了。我只能想象,如果我们真的坐在了自己花钱购买的座位上,体验会有多出色。不过,我不会再去这个场所了。