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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 143, 23 July 1914, Page 6

Complaint* with respect to the freezing chamber temperatures ol ! the Theatre .Royal on winter evenings have been frequent and emphatic of late. Since the advent of the cold weather, theatregoers- and concert lovers have had to sit out performances under extremely trying conditions, and a few nights ago one enthusiast fortified herself against the low temperature with a rug and a hot water bottle.- What Is the matter with installing 1 aii ; up-to-date warming apparatus in this chamber? Modern picture halls in this city have met the situation by adding a measure of comfort for their patrons, and it a concession that might well

• be provided for those wlio attend at the Theatre Royal. It is placing too great a strain on the average individual's enthusiasm for art to expect him to melt in ecstasy over a soprano's golden j trill while his feet freeze and his body is flinching from the cold. Even for those astonishing persons who worship Art (with a capital A) as the Red Indian his totem, and whose rapture can, on the slightest provocation, become trance-like and wide-eyed, there must be a considerable affliction of the body physical when the sou'wester sweeps about the building freeziugly. Blue uoses and trembling limbs do not co-ordinate well with the glamours of the stage, soar the soprano never so j lark-like, Hash the ballet never so, dazzlingly. Ohristchurch patrons have a right to expect from those with whom the remedy lies a reasonable consideration in the matter of alleviating the rigorous conditions that obtain on winter evenings. It is asking too much of both the performers ajid the audience to expect them to suffer without protest the refrigerating atmosphere of the Theatre Royal, and if no heed is paid to the numerous plaints, the general public and theatrical managers should try other means of having their reasonable comforts attended to.