When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other (NT)

vdcni said you were complaining, not arguing. And if your sentence starts with "I'm not arguing" then... you're arguing. That's how arguing works, soz.

Can you point out what I said was inappropriate as what vdcni has been writing?

I’m with you on that. I happened to get tickets in the ballot and happen to be going tonight. But if I hadn’t managed to get tickets I’d hardly be in uproar about it. Have been on both sides of the successful/unsuccessful coin over the years.

The way I see it, an incredibly well known actress is doing a play she wants to do (probably for creative reasons and in an auditorium fitting to the material, not how many bums they think they can get on seats - hurrah!) and the theatre has taken steps to try and ensure tickets are distributed fairly. Yes people have missed out and yes it’s not been that smooth, but it’s surely fairer than everyone scrabbling with hold queues and system errors at a time when you were probably at work or commuting in.

Well do let us know what you think Ade, if we're lucky it might broaden the conversation, or if you loathe it, that might work too.

Indeed Ade, I hope you and your bladder enjoy it. Meanwhile I'll be next door at I'm Not Running.

Better to deploy what's known as Gowry's Law of Hyrdation, sometimes referred to as the Hydration Principle. When approaching any kind of urination-avoidance situation such as this (or queueing for general admission events in order to gain a front row spot from which it's difficult to negotiate toilet visits, which I gather is how this law was established), you decrease your liquid intake, employing small sips 1-2 hours before and then ceasing intake. This should enable hydration to continue through the event without the need to tap your bladder.

A ballot is never 'a good thing', it is an admission of failure.

Let us not forget that the NT has got Blanchett fans to try to get tickets and then told the vast majority of them that, sorry, no, we are so exclusive that we don't want you. Crimp/Mitchell fans (of which I am one) are a relatively minor issue as compared to the way the NT has made it look like they are just for a few people who pay a lot of money, who are in the know or who get lucky.

It's supposed to be an inclusive venue. It doesn't look like that to an awful lot of people who just had their first (and quite probably last) contact with it.

I do think that is a big problem. What do they do with pop concerts? I'm not aware of them doing that system, though to be fair the music artistes I like tend to be the sort you can see for under £20. And, as well as venues offering returns, there are things like Twickets for face-value resale if you can't make the date.

I’ve changed my mind. 

However, if you had quoted the rest of my post the context of why I said it is clear and ‘I know things now which I never knew before’. 

To very much qualify that, I went on to say -

Then it was plastered all over national newspapers for some reason and the whole thing got blown out of all proportion.
I think you can spot how I’ve evolved on this,...

I also didn’t realise that they were cutting out non-Londoners/people who work by removing Friday Rush, I don’t understand the thought process behind that.

So they’ve done that too.

Frankly, I thought this would be limited in its appeal and a ballot would prove that, so that those interested in the production would be the ones who bothered. You see, I don’t get why people see anything that an actor is in. It makes zero sense to me but I am, apparently, very much in minority on that, so am forewarned the next time it is suggested. I thought it would weed people out and was shocked when people started popping up talking about seeing ‘The Cate Blanchett play’ .

And, like Brexit, who knew it could be done this badly?

Beyond that complete miscalculation, I didn’t foresee that they would stop it being broadcast on NT live either or that they would not announce an extension. A ballot for the initial run and then extensions would have made sense once they realised they were turning so many people away (I admit again I underestimated Blanchett’s wider popularity beyond being a good theatre actor severely. I mean, Who knew? Well, not me obviously. To be honest, whenever names are mentioned i have to Google pictures of them and, even then, usually haven’t got a clue who they are).

I’ve changed my mind on Brexit too. Until recently I was prepared to let May find a compromise, now I think we need to storm parliament.....

If it's "just a play", then why are you here commenting?  Obviously you must find some interest in the comments to take the time to write it all down.

Finally someone gets it.  NT is in over it's head with this production.  Even after being questioned about their policy, NT blatantly lied to people about the ballot system.  The only way a person living outside the UK can get tickets is to fly to London and stand in line for day tickets.