Abstract
This year, bids will be submitted for the construction and equipping of Britain's National Theatre. It is ironic that after sixtyfive years of planning and four major attempts to actualize this dream, that its reality will fall so short of meeting the needs of the present circumstances. Drama will be presented there in the evening to a restricted audience in a prestige building costing twenty-four million dollars.Seating only two thousand people in its two theatres, and with a subscription system for reserving places, the new National Theatre will not be open to all citizens of the nation. “The first four rows of seating in each auditorium, which some might consider uncomfortably close to the stage, are spaced more closely than the seating in the main body of the auditorium so that they can be sold to younger theatregoers on the day of performance.” (National Theatre. Detailed Design Proposals, Nov. 1967.) So much for the building committee's attitude toward poorer spectators, but what about its rich patrons?
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