A visit to a West-End theatre – exercise 2
This writing exercise is based on an article Stephen Pollard wrote in the Times. Stephen Pollard is a British author and journalist who writes columns for several publications including the Times, the Daily Mail and the Spectator. He is currently President of a free-market Brussels-based think tank, the Centre for the New Europe and Chairman of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.
This writing exercise requires you to listen to the recording and complete the text below. The words you need to supply test different difficulties of vocabulary and spelling. Some you will just have to guess – but see if you can spot some of the problems tested! (spot = notice).
I’ve got a suggestion for those going to West-End theatres: "Spend ………………….. 1. You’ll hate every minute of it."
Last week my wife and I went to see Piaf at the Vaudeville Theatre on the Strand in London. ………………… 2 by the ………………….. 3 we ………………….. 4 just under £100 for two tickets. As it happens, we thought the play was ………………… 5 bad: shockingly ………………….. 6 and ………………….. 7. But that’s ………………….. 8; you take a ………………….. 9 every time you see a film or a play. What disgusted us was ………………….. 10 of the producers, whose entire business model seems to be based on the strategy of ………………….. 11 the customer.
When we arrived, 15 minutes before ………………….. 12, the doors to the ………………….. 13 were closed, so that we were forced to stand in the tiny and increasingly crushed ………………….. 14. But there was ………………….. 15: every few minutes the announcement went up that the bars were open. I’d have to be a cynic to suggest that the ………………….. 16 was deliberate, to ………………….. 17 bar profits for a play without an interval; so that is indeed what I suggest.
………………….. 18, things were even worse as we walked into a sauna with zero air circulation. The smell of ………………….. 19 and ………………….. 20 ……………. 21 over us like a reverse form of perfume. My wife described the toilets as being designed for adults with 12in waists and no more than 4ft tall. Our seats seemed not to have been re-covered since the theatre opened in 1870; we were effectively sitting on benches. My ………………….. 22 is 29in. I am less than 5ft 9in tall. Even I had to sit with my knees pushed hard against the seat in front. So when we chose to leave after 45 minutes we created an enormous ………………….. 23, as the entire row had to ………………….. 24 acrobatics to let us out.
I object ………………….. 25 to the idea of ………………….. 26, but the National Theatre in London and the Royal Exchange in Manchester – the two I know best – are ………………….. 27 places to visit. It is ………………….. 28 that they are consistently ………………….. 29. I have, however, ………………….. 30 to visit a West-End theatre – and my wife and I are ………………….. 31 to theatre – which is ………………….. 32. Actors and directors are constantly ………………….. 33 us for not supporting serious theatre. Has it not ………………….. 34 to them that this might be connected to the fact that we have a more comfortable time in the most average of cinemas?