Every season someone on our board asks whether ₦4,000 is too little for a balcony seat. Every season I give the same answer: a theatre that only the comfortable can afford is a theatre that only tells their stories.
The sums
A full house on a Friday brings in about ₦1.9 million. A night costs us about ₦2.1 million to run, once you count eight salaried actors, crew, front of house, diesel and the borehole. The difference, and more, comes from our friends, our patrons and the hire of the building on Mondays.
We would rather have 248 people paying a little than 120 people paying a lot.
What full houses do
Actors play differently to a full room. Comedy needs laughter to bounce off other laughter. Drama needs the stillness of a crowd. When we cut the balcony price in 2019, our evening audiences grew by a third and the front stalls sold better too, because people came back.
- Pay what you can seats every Wednesday, from ₦1,000
- Student tickets at 40% off, every show
- School matinees at ₦2,500 a pupil
What we ask in return
Come back. Bring someone who has never been. If you can afford more, become a friend of Opus, so that the student in the balcony beside you can keep paying less than the price of a plate of fish.
