Opening night disgraces

For the second time in a month I have arrived at a theatre only to find that the opening night performance has been cancelled.
The first show was a professional production, part of Artrage, and I was told of the play that very same afternoon, by a family member of the production’s team. I drove into the city, parked at a metered area and paid for 2.5 hours. On arriving at the theatre I didn’t notice the A5 handwritten sign on the front door and walked in, only to find all of the lights and scenery still on the floor.
The second show was an amateur production which I found on the ‘What’s on today’ section of this site. On arrival at the theatre, the banner outside still stated the incorrect opening night date. On entering cast and crew stared at me as though I was from another planet, before I was told that instead of the show, this was a final rehearsal and that the play was delayed ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’ – the same lame excuse as the first show.
On both occasions very little embarrassment was shown for the inconvenience.
Is this a new norm for Perth theatre productions? And is it now generally acceptable?

I don't know anything of the circumstances of either production Gordon has graciously left nameless, bit I'd be surprised if any company, professional or amateur approached the question of cancelling opening night with anything but the greatest trepidation and reluctance.

In a hundred or so productions, I've only ever been involved in one where the opening night was cancelled - after the final dress rehearsal. Shortly followed by cancellation of the entire season.

Trust me. It was a blessing.

We're probably all acutely conscious of the adage "the show must go on". Occasionally we might cling to it a little too tenaciously at the expense of subjecting the opening night audience to something significantly below par.

There's no question that it should not happen; unforeseen circumstances or no. But it takes courage of your convictions to cancel a night rather than present something unworthy.

What concerns me more than the cancellation is the apparently off-hand manner in which each company treated audience members who weren't aware of the cancellation and made the effort to attend only to be turned away.

In my mind, if an opening night is advertised and later cancelled but the message fails to get through to everyone concerned and someone turns up, I'd be going out of my way to make amends by offering that person a free ticket to come back on the opening night and perhaps the same offer for any other night in the season if they can't make the opening.

It's plain poor customer relations to allow anyone to leave without offering to redress their wasted time and effort.

Cheers
Grant

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Director, actor and administrator of this website

Damned if you do...

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