No tickets left for festival debate

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33790, 12 March 1975, Page 19

No tickets left for festival debate

Cilla Black excepted, the first of the Arts Festival performances to be sold out are the debate, “That we are ale and arty,” and one night of the satirical revue, “Christopher Robin Goes Off With Alice.”

All the auditorium’s 2654 seats are filled for the debate next Monday evening. Tickets were sold out at midday on Monday. No accommodation will be made available at the Town Hall for overflow. The Merely Players production, “Christopher Robin Goes Off with Alice,” is proving one of the festival’s most popular performances. Although its venue, the Museum Lecture Theatre, is smaller than the auditorium or the James Hay Theatre, its concerts run for 13 evenings — more than any other i festival production at the James Hay Theatre or the; auditorioum. The Friday night perform-! ance is booked out, and demand for seats at other performances is steady. Last evening’s performance was only three seats short of a full house when the booking office closed at 4.30 p.m. DEMAND HEAVY Demand for tickets for all shows has “bolted,” according to the Town Hall booking office. They are selling at the rate of about 2500 a day, and at 4 p.m. on Monday 36,300 tickets had been sold. Last Thursday, 28,000 tickets had been sold, at the rate of about 1600 a day. The popularity of the lunch-time literature readings at the Court Theatre has been a surprise. The venue has been full for readings from Jane Austen, New Zealand women poets, poetry of the 40s, and Canterbury poets. Support of the Maori concert, Arohanui, at the University Hall on Sunday evening also exceeded expectations. Standing room only was left. Counter sales of tickets at the Town Hall booking office are now almost continuous; Cilla Black’s two 8.30 p.m. concerts in the auditorium are sold out Seats

for her two 6 p.m. showsl are limited to a single back! row of choir seats. The opening of the “Mar-[ riage of Figaro” was almost fully booked last evening, l

land bookings for the ThursIday and Saturday concerts | are heavy. i Bookings for Peter Nero’s (Tuesday concert are also 'moving well.