The Single Spark with Chantelle the Coach (previously The Single Girl's Guide to Life)

Why Solo Seats Should Be Encouraged at the Theatre | Ep 119

• Chantelle the Coach

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Solo adventures are one of my favourites - and going to the theatre alone is just one version of that.

And just last week, Kate Maltby's article "Adopting a 'no seat should be left lonely' policy stigmatises solo theatregoing" in The Stage caught my eye - and I wanted to wade in on the conversation.

Whether it's theatre and cinema going, or the solo person council tax discount, I wanted to reflect on the frustrations of solo adventures, the challenges posed by policies and how we can keep loving single life, even if it costs us more at times! 

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Music from Ep 110 onwards by Kadien Music. Get your own podcast music here!
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life coaching for singles, how to be okay on you're own, overcoming loneliness, how to stop feeling lonely, single women, divorced in your 20s

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DISCLAIMER: The podcast and content posted by Chantelle The Coach is presented solely for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Single Spark. This is the podcast for all millennial independent women that are out there looking for the spark in themselves, looking for a spark in dating and want to talk about all those things that might spark a further conversation or change in the world. And today, because we're back with this new kind of era we were already in a new era anyway, but it's kind of a more defined new era where we are looking at our first topical topic, topical topic of this podcast, and for these episodes I'm going to be doing live research as and when things go. So, basically, when I'm in a PSHE classroom, kids ask me questions and I answer the best I can, to the best of my knowledge of being fair, of giving both sides.

Speaker 1:

I had to defend Nigel Farage the other day. You may or may not approve of that. The child had misinterpreted what I said anyway, but I actually delivered a very down the middle. I just said that I didn't like americans coming for nigel farage because, whether you agree with him or not, I think he's good at his job. And and also, leave our politics alone. That's our politics. Leave us alone, leave us be.

Speaker 1:

And so I found myself defending, as it were, nigel farage, um, and you might think he's a, a total idiot or just you know, does things wrong, but I think it's a bit like. You cannot deny that Taylor Swift is a great marketer because look at what she's built. No, no, you can't it objectively. You can't, you could not like her songs and you might hate her as a person, which I'm hoping you that is, not you guys as listeners, because I quite like her, but I think I appreciate her more in the, the artistry and the entrepreneurship. And the same goes for Farage like objectively, if you look at him presenting very good, very clever at what he does, and you can't overlook that for views that you might not agree with.

Speaker 1:

And so this is the tone of the podcast, um, in this sense, and when kids ask me questions and I can't answer, I have to look them up sometimes, and so that will be the same for these episodes. If you hear tapping in the background, I'm not going to edit it out. I don't have time for that. We're making this podcast very simple for me to do, otherwise I just can't do it. Time. Time is of the essence, guys, but we are going to jump to a daily mail article that I saw. No, was it daily mail? Oh no, I take it all back. Oh, it wasn't. I think it was. I think rightly so.

Speaker 1:

I believe it was the stage uk, um, put out an article stage. Okay, if you don't know what the stage is, the stage is, uh, well, it used to be a print media. I actually don't think it should. It is anymore, um, but the stage is a newspaper or a media forum for all things theater and they get all of the stuff we're talking backstage you can on stage, like it's just very much. They post jobs, uh, musical theaters, west end broadway oh, you name it, it's there off off. What do you call it? When it off off? Breast end fringe stuff, you know all of that kind of stuff. They never fringe one of their West End Broadway, you name it, it's there Off off. What do you call it? Off off? West End Fringe stuff, you know all of that kind of stuff. Edinburgh Fringe is one of their favourite times and I can't read the article because it's paywalled.

Speaker 1:

But the headline was enough to get my attention and thought this is something that we've got to talk about because this bugs me. And the headline it's an article written by Kate Maltby, and she is the chair of the Critics Circle drama section and she wrote this and the headline is Adopting a no-seat-should-be-left-lonely policy stigmatises solo theatre going. So according to that title sounds like she's presenting the same argument that I would be looking at as well. So I believe this has come about because at the theatre, you can not book something usually if it leaves a single seat. Have you ever had that? Whether it's a Taylor Swift concert, whether it's going to see a theatre show or just at your local comedy gig, sometimes the booking systems do not let you leave a single seat. Now I for one, as someone that would advocate that you go and do things on your own, whether you're in a relationship or not, would advocate going to do things on your own and absolutely getting a single seat. So I really want to see mrs doubtfire the musical. Don't know if anyone's seen it yet, but I it's coming off in april. Guys, we're running out of time. Mom was meant to take me at christmas, or she said she was going and she changed her mind about what she wanted to do, and that's fine. But now my plan to see mrs doubtfire, you know, didn't happen and I didn't know. I've only got to april. It's february now.

Speaker 1:

To sort it out, however, I've kind of discovered a hack not hack, but I'm not paying the prices right. Theater is expensive as it is. It always has been, and I've always been the kind of person that I will try and go and I'll try and pay, but if I can go for free or go for cheaper than I will because I'm not made of money, um and so if I can go, I'll go cheaper. So we went to see Benjamin Butter the other day because there had been a oh like a see it in 2025 deal. I can't think what. It was much better phrase than that but there were some offers on and we got these fantastic seats that were normally 90 pounds for 60. And even 60 is still quite a lot, but I think if I'm paying 30 and I'm at the top and I can't even see the stage or there's some pillar in my way, that's frustrating as it is, and so I don't go that often. But for Mrs Doubtfire, there is an offer on at the moment.

Speaker 1:

Basically, it seems quite consistent that if you go onto the, I think it's the official London theatre. Let's have a look. Official London theatre. It's the official London theatre. Let's have a look. Official London theatre. It's orange. I always know that. I know if I'm on the right one. Oh yeah, I think it's. I think it's that official. Oh see it. Live in 2025 was what their little clever thing was called. So it's definitely them.

Speaker 1:

If you go to on the day and I'll do it now just to test the theory what day are we on a Saturday? I that you're hearing on a Thursday, but you could be listening anytime. Mrs Outfire, discount available. Go to it For today. Tickets from £28, because if you can prepare yourself to buy the on-the-day tickets event not found, oh, because it's just about to start I can't do 2.30. If you're prepared to go on the day look, you can't look, but you can listen. £98 tickets are now £58, and £85 50 tickets are £48. And with the £58 ones, you can sit in the stalls or the Royal Circle, or for the red ones, which are the £48 ones, you can sit in the Royal Circle. That's quite decent seats. If you do this on any other days, you can actually get ones even cheaper, for about £38, and they are £50 tickets, and I think a couple of them were in stalls.

Speaker 1:

I looked last night, on Friday night as me and mum were waiting for Benjamin Button. I was doing that and at the time, and even now that I'm looking this, if you wanted to go and see this tonight for £58, there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. In the stalls there are nine single seats that you could take. Those seats are truly otherwise redundant. I mean, there's plenty of others actually in duos, trios etc. But we are the best candidates to fill those seats because there's no one else and you know you can't guarantee some rows. I don't, and I'm not going to sit there and count could take you on, but some rows we've worked in theory before. Some rows have odd numbers and some rows have even numbers. So somewhere along the line you need groups of odds and even so it's not like you can even just say you must buy in pairs, because what happens when you, when you have three people, when it's a single parent and two kids that they're taking along, or if it's a two parent group plus a child, or just three friends that want to go? So it brought this to my attention because she is right.

Speaker 1:

It is an opinion piece. It says there that it would stigmatize solo theater, and I'm not saying that I think that it's huge, that this is a massive industry, but I just think we could be doing things that encourage solo people to go anyway, like putting discounts on those teats and you can go. Oh, the theater will lose out, that's what the theater's gonna think about. But you get one more person in there and they know their averages per customer. Put one more person there. You've sold the seat for less, maybe because it was on its own.

Speaker 1:

But you know, ultimately I, I don't care if I sit on my own or go with someone else to mrs doubtfire, I just want a cheaper seat than what you're selling, because I, I'm, I, I'm, no, I'm not paying. I'm not paying 98 pounds, I'm not paying 85 pound 50, I'm not paying 43 pounds to be at the back of the royal circle like I'm not. So you, you're not getting me in that theatre unless it's cheaper. Anyway. Theatre's a lot of money at the moment and Cosi lives, it's putting us all out. We don't want to force people up into buying an extra seat when they don't need it, because Cosi lives, no one has, no one has, oh, not, no one. But many of us don't have that. Flexibility like 43 pounds is enough. Leave us be. And actually you know it happens wherever you go.

Speaker 1:

I go out for a meal on my own and I stop a restaurant not having a table for two unless they've got a little you know bar where you can just sit on your own. But most places don't have that and there's nothing wrong with that. Yes, of course it's better value for money for them, but you as the business owner have to account for that. In terms of whether it's a hotel room and you'd have single occupancy discounts, okay, sure, if they have booked a double room, then they're taken away from a couple using that at the full rate if you have done a discount, but also they're not taking the breakfast that was probably thrown in. And it's difficult when it comes to things like hotels because a lot of discussion has always been whether it's the in-person events I used to run or within the group chats online the frustration over the cost of not being able to split the price of a hotel room or being charged as much as two people using the room. And unfortunately, I actually can't side with as much on that side because if you want the double bed, you're wasting a space. So I can understand why a business is saying well, you're having the same space as two people, therefore you do have to pay for those two people, maybe minus breakfast if that's such a thing. But you know, some rooms don't come with any breakfast so it's the same rate anyway. So kind of I get that from a business perspective.

Speaker 1:

They've had to put the same floor print in and then even down to if you go to, okay, well, I'll take a single room, the frustration that it's not half, but at the same time you're still, even if the room is half, purely just because the bed. I mean, is the room really half? Probably not, because you've got the side table. You can have cut the other side table out, the desk area or, you know, dressing table a bit. If it's got it, that's there regardless. Maybe you've got a sofa and chair, just like in a double room, and then the big one. I always think you've got probably got and chair just like in a double room, and then the big one. I always think you've probably got the en suite. So as much as yes, there's only one less person sleeping in it. The floor space is probably not half. It's still got the same, probably size bathroom, and so really can we reasonably expect them to halve the price of that? Not really. I think that the kind of two thirds, three-quarters is always going to apply there. I do think I do think the old uh 25 discount for single person living is a little bit. Are we sure about that? Because I can tell you now, my waist is significantly less than people that have got two, three, four, five people like.

Speaker 1:

The interesting part around here where I live is that there are three blocks of houses and each house is split into four and so that constitutes a house. That's hence why this is upstairs. Downstairs is my bedroom and bathroom. I live in it as a one, next door living as one. The people behind me live in it as a one. Next door live in it as one, the people behind me live in it as a one, and diagonally opposite is a two right. But each house, subject to assuming that they're worth the same amount of money, has the same council tax. The three of us get a discount.

Speaker 1:

Now, in theory, I don't know of anyone that pushes to having three people in these houses. There was one group that did. It was a couple and they had a son, and then they were pregnant again and had another one, and that's when they moved out. But I mean, even a couple and a son in a space like this is pretty insane, and sure a small child doesn't count, um, but like, what facilities do I use? Comparably that the? You know, the one we see the most on council tax is bins. So I think the argument back.

Speaker 1:

If I have to be objective and not biased in my approach, I think the justification would be think of all the services that you use, and you know you use. You use the streets and the lights in town. You know you can't really you say it like that, but do you know? I mean you think about what council tax actually pays for, certainly not just the bins, although it is the main one we see, and the 25 probably just does reflect the recycling and the bins situation, as opposed to thinking of all the things that the council pay for, like the parks and keeping the high street looking nice, parking, maybe a reasonable price. I imagine they make money from their parking rather than get it from council tax. But you know it all feeds in and so this is what I mean in terms of. I will always be balanced, but you'll always hear a little bit of what I'm thinking and the frustration in that, but I think if they're going to bring in policies I don't know if um kate maltby has written this because there is talk of no seat should be left lonely policies, or if she's just noticed that within you know, when you're trying to book you're not able to um it it really does just. It really is going to push solo theatre goers and solo anything goers out of the realm.

Speaker 1:

The part that I loved the most was going and doing those things on my own and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Doing that and and getting to experience things without feeling like I had to be with people, because I love going to see things, I love just booking things, and it's really hard to get people to commit when there's money and time involved, and that only becomes more and more of a problem when your friends get busier or when they move further away and then when they have babies themselves, like that. That's madly huge. You can't even cost wise. Can they even afford it right now? Time wise, who's gonna have the baby? Are they gonna be okay to want to leave the baby? All those kind of things. It just becomes so much harder and I think I would have done half the things that I've done if I didn't get, if I couldn't do them alone, if I had to book with someone else when I went to Tomorrowland, the best dance music festival that there is I mean it's the one I've been to, so obviously the best. I was questioning there because there's one in Las Vegas that sounds to be very good. I think it's Las Vegas. Anyway, you know I had the.

Speaker 1:

I went and did that on my own and was bundled with 90 odd other people from various countries and the accommodation I had was not split between two. Other people were in pairs. They'd come along in pairs and they were part of this hundred or so of us in pairs, but they got to split and they had it a bit cheaper. I can't deny them that because they're sharing the one space. I had two beds. I kept all my stuff on the other bed and I slept in the other bed. You know it wasn't half as hot, I imagine, as it would have been for those two sharing, because it was like little tenty things. They were great because they had like wooden bits and it was very fancy, had the same charge points that they had and they had everything else. They got a ticket each, but when they divided the total cost of it all by two, it was cheap. Mine was about three grand and I think theirs was about two and a half, and those numbers are going to shock everybody.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I paid three grand for it, and let me just clear that up, because I have no shame in paying three grand and pounds to go to that. It was something like that. I don't even remember the figure now. Um, I had the house deposit, had come back from the house that I sold with my ex and I'd put a fair chunk in it. We'd made a fair bit on it, I think we probably I probably doubled what I put into it. I guess I've never really sat and thought about that.

Speaker 1:

Um, so I had a big chunk of money in my account and I was wary enough to keep hold of the majority of it, because, I mean, when you've got a big chunk of cash, it's very easy to think well, I will just spend it on everything. And I did invest in a few things, um, mini courses, courses it was the start of everything bought books quite easily, but I certainly didn't dig into it very much at all, bar this one expense and it's something I'd said I'd wanted to go to when I've been in the relationship paid for it. Stood in a tube because I didn't want to come off the tube to tap out, but stood at the tube at the top and came up to get signal to get the ticket and it was the only ticket I could get hold of. I was like I want to go. It got delayed by two years because of covid and I thankfully kept enough of my deposit oh, sorry, enough of the big chunk to then put a deposit down on this place, phew, and pay the fees that go with everything that goes with buying a house. So that was my only big splurge and other than my wedding, I've never had. I've never had a big splurge. And buying this place I've never had a big splurge like that. Otherwise, never in my life. I've not even, oh, I've bought a car, but it's on finance, so you don't really feel that most of the time. So, yeah, if I hadn't been able to go and do that, I'd never been able to do that and that's one of the best experiences of my life, I think when I did the New Year's Eve single girls club. We just had different tiers, but you paid for your bed and it purely was the bed that made the difference in terms of did you have a duo room? Did you have one of the beds in a room of five and if so, was it a single bed or was it one of the bunk beds? You know just simply for purely the comfort level of that, and that it gave people choices, but everything else was shared and therefore there was no difference in that there. So it was just an interesting one.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it would be a shame to stop anybody going to the cinema on their own, to theatre, to comedy gigs. Apart from which, I wonder what percentage of tickets build that up anyway, what percentage of solos fill stuff? And actually, is there a way to connect form an agency of, you know, single tickets purely, purely for solo theater goers? Or, you know, actually advertising them out and saying we've got a few like the mrs doubtfire situation, like they've got on the day tickets. They're selling them off cheap. But actually, what if there was this just solo outlet, that something specially made for people that like to do things solo because they don't have to be single in that regard. But you go on the solo theater girls websitecom and they tell you all of the solo seats that have been left and yeah, it's sold at a discount because it's probably not going to sell otherwise.

Speaker 1:

You've got a funny configured theater. That's got one, you know, and there's a I'm just looking at this book in here so there's a two one side and then there's two, four, six, eight. Yeah, like that row couldn't not have had a single seat in it unless you had a trio come in. Impossible, couldn't be done. And it's interesting. They've got, obviously, agents selling those seats and that's why I think those solo seats have probably appeared, because the agents have got the whole row and so they have to deal with the single seats. They've probably you know what I have no idea if this is true or not, but they've probably given the rows that have a dodgy number of seats like that, because you normally do go in twos. But I mean, it could be anything, though it's so random, but they probably give the odd rows to the other agents agents you see this on there because you'll be like a whole row hasn't been booked. Um, they probably block that off for the various different agencies that there are that you can buy tickets through, to make it their problem to deal with the solo ticket and whether they accept it or not, because I guess I don't know how it works in terms of do they have to reserve them all? Do they only pay if it sells? I don't know. I I don't know how it works, it's just interesting.

Speaker 1:

So what do you think? What do we think about the idea that you can't book a ticket here because it would leave one on its own? Is that a good thing? Should it encourage people to buy the extra ticket? Or should it just be allowed? Like, should it only be? I don't think we should stop solo people buying solo ticket. Should it only be? I don't think we should stop solo people buying solo ticket. But is there, should it be, that you can only choose those seats if there's no other way to get, because sometimes you just want those seats? I was just thinking could you do it on tier? But like I'm a stalls kind of gal, I like to be in the stall. I'm a stalls kind of gal, I like to be in the stall.

Speaker 1:

So if someone said to me oh well, we have three seats available in the Royal Circle and you have to take those because your stalls booking would leave one when you've actually got a chance to book in and it doesn't leave a one, I'd be like I don't want the tickets. Then Don't force me to sit in the Royal Circle, I mean, unless I really want to see it, obviously. But Then I'd be like, well, what if a three comes along after me and wants those three and leaves a one on its own? Then they'd be like, well, there'd be no option, then they'd have to sit there. Well, that's annoying then, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

So I don't think you can do that, but it just got me, and I agree it would stigmatize solo theater going, which I think is so valuable, to building your sense of you, to giving you experiences and not letting you miss out just because your friends aren't around, because you haven't got a partner to default lean onto. And also, not everyone can afford it right now, and you might have got a treat for your Christmas or birthday present or just done really well at work or got a promotion. You want to treat yourself and you can't pay for two tickets. You know that's a bit far-fetched. You want to treat yourself to one ticket and other people can't do it, and that's okay, but let me have the one ticket and don't stop other people from booking just because it leaves one there. If you've got thoughts on this, drop me a DM or maybe there'll be a Facebook group. We'll work that out to give your thoughts. Until next time, keep sparkling.

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Chantelle Dyson

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