Why I Hate The Hippodrome

Last night we went to see a very special production of the West Side Story. It showed in the Hippodrome in Bristol, a very beautiful red and gold venue with the elegant atmosphere of long gone eras.

People did make special efforts, smart or elegant dresses were in the majority at least as far as the ladies are concerned, some men did stoop low enough and wore shorts and t-shirts.

We went there with shivers of anticipation, because at least the film of the musical is one of my all time favourites.

After the drive and a walk around Bristol the first stop had to be the toilets. Then a walk through what seemed to be a labyrinth and we were greeted by hot sticky air topped with rather unpleasant smell while waiting in the queue, the first toilet I approached was out of paper – before the show!- next toilet:  floor flooded with some form of liquid – we don’t want to know.

I survived ordeal, so off to bar to order an interval drink, anticipating some nice, ice-cold wine, similar to the drinks you get in any club in Bristol or in the comparative equal Theatre Royal in Bath.

On offer: Black Tower. Yuck.

So go for cider, it is Gaymer, cheap but cheerful. Ok, that then! £3.90. £3.90? We shared a lovely Thatcher’s Gold in a bar just before and paid £3.20. And now we are expected to pay more for cheap crap! But ok, we asked and were assured that said drink would be at least ice cold when served in the interval, so we bought it.

Then off to have an ice cream, of which there were three flavours, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, nothing nice and interesting. But hey, why not. And then the shock: £2.50. £2.50! For a cheap brand, nothing like Marshfield or similar and then it was not properly frozen, but rather too soft and had to be eaten very quickly.

What is the matter with Bristolians? Don’t they mind being totally ripped off? I do not mind paying over the odds for a drink in a theatre if the quality of the drink mirrors the quality of the show. I don’t care about the price of ice cream as long as I get something special. But I very much resent paying through my nose for total and utter crap. And if I do make an effort, dress nicely and go to a show I want the whole experience to be special and that includes pre- mid- and after show drinks and snacks as well as clean and airy toilets, stocked with all the necessary paraphernalia at all times.

The next problem appeared in the interval: the cider was lukewarm and came in a plastic (!) bottle. Was I at a festival? Where revellers were expected to get drunk and throw bottles at the stage? And plastic glasses – I thought I was in a theatre, but I must have been mistaken.

After only 15 minutes (hardly enough time to finish our drink, not that that mattered) the lights flickered, which I ignored, because the probability of thunderstorms meant that power fluctuation were likely. Hubby was in the toilet and did not have any light problems. Suddenly everybody rushed out and after a short confused moment we realised that the flickering lights meant the end of the interval. Wherever we go, whatever show we watch (theatre and/or opera) the end of the interval is usually a bell of some sorts. So how is one supposed to recognise flickering lights as the sign to go back to your seat? And the time between the start of the second part and the flickering lights was so short that a considerable number of people were still on the way to their seats – is there no monitor to give a sign when the show can continue?
I am not in any way insisting on the best just for the sake of it, but for example the drinks and state of toilets in my favourite Bristol venue, the Thekla, are ten times better than in the Hippodrome.

To me it feels a bit like a factory in there – the main thing seems to be to get as much money with the least effort out of the patrons without any thought or care for the ones that pay and keep the Hippodrome going. We had a similar experience years ago, when we went to see an opera there, which made us swear never to come back to this particular venue again. We did go because we won tickets to an absolute brilliant show, which we enjoyed very much. But everything else in the Hippodrome is absolutely awful and again we promise: never again!

Heike Harding-Reyland