Rufus Norris: National Theatre press ticket revenge claims 'absurd'

Rufus Norris has rebuffed “absurd” claims that he stripped critics of their National Theatre press night plus ones as revenge for bad reviews.

The policy, due to start last month but delayed until August, means free press tickets for shows in the Olivier and Lyttelton theatres will be limited to one per critic.

However, they will be able to buy a second one at a discounted £20 rate.

When the new rule was first revealed, The Telegraph reported that Norris “appears to have sought revenge” on critics for unenthusiastic reviews of shows he had programmed since becoming NT director – including Wonder.land and Evening at the Talk House.

Asked whether the scrapping of plus ones was a retaliation to negative reviews, Norris told The Times: “That’s absurd. Do people really think I sit vengefully in my ivory tower trying to get my own back?”

The director went on to say he did not think he had ever acted vengefully as an adult.

He continued: “Nobody enjoys being slagged off, of course, but it’s ridiculous that an organisation as full of intelligent people as this place is would do something on the whim of a chief executive. We are frankly a bit more grown up than that.”

The National Theatre’s head of press previously suggested the new policy was part of a drive to get a wider range of critics into the theatre’s press nights, such as writers of “online media”.

In the same interview with The Times, Norris revealed the National Theatre had achieved a record audience of 787,000 at its South Bank home in his first year in charge. This does not include tours, West End transfers or NT Live audiences.

Pointing to the NT’s long-held slogan “theatre for everyone”, Norris said that in order to broaden the venue’s audience base, “we have to consider where those audiences are getting their information”.

He explained: “Our press department has an allocation of 120 tickets per show, as they have done for the past 20 years. That isn’t changing, but with all the new print media, broadcast outlets and online writers and social media, they have to cater for a much bigger pool now.”

“We can’t just double the press allocation; it wouldn’t be an ethical use of public money,” he said, before adding: “I don’t think many [of the new reviewers] will be bloggers.”