I bought some tickets for the Arts Festival (History Boys) in a section of the theatre where I could only hear about 50% of the audio with poor visibility of part of the stage design. I requested a refund to no avail given that hearing dialogue is so important. The festival organisers, the theatre and actors were aware of this and claimed to have adjusted their projection - which was not enough for me and the people around me. Where can I take this? Is there a consumer council in HK?
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tia
18 yrs ago
I am not sure, but I am very curious to see if you get anywhere. I have the same complaint but no idea who to speak to.
If you need support for the case, I will gladly help.
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tia - you have exactly the same complaint?
Pumpkin - can you tell me what SCMP said or which date this appeared?
Thanks
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If you still want the Consumer Council, it's at:
http://www.consumer.org.hk/website/ws_en/
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Pumpkin - what did SCMP say???
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tia
18 yrs ago
PFT! Smarty pants....
No, it was truly terrible...many people I know, INCLUDING Brits, said it was hard to hear. I am not saying it was tough to UNDERSTAND...just the volume was too low.
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Pumpkin chill... I did do a Google search and nothing came up. SCMP are pretty strict about what non-subscribers can access, but if someone would like to post I'd appreciate it.
Accents are not a problem - I'm from "Up North" anyway. Also you couldn't hear the teachers' voiecs who didn't have accents.
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hkkm
18 yrs ago
I also remember the letter, and reply, in the SCMP. I went to see the play on Feb 18th, and the letters were in the week after that.
From memory, the complain letter was along the lines of what chinacrisis said (and what I and my friends experienced when we went) - couldn't hear the dialogue and the top part of the video was chopped off from the balcony. The reponse from the Arts Festival rep was that the actors had been made aware of the audio problems and asked to project their voices as much as possible. Can't remember what they said about not being able to see the video.
My own impression was that the audio problems must have been due to a design flaw in the theatre - I can't think of any other explanation for it. It's not that big a place, so any decent actor should have been able to be heard if it was properly designed. I will certainly think twice about going to a play in that venue again.
(Just my own opinion, chinacrisis, but I don't think you missed much by not being able to hear well. I don't think I would have enjoyed it even if I were sitting in the front row - I didn't feel much for any of the characters, nor did I appreciate what the problem was with the different teaching methods. Maybe you need to be English to understand...)
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hkkm - thanks. I think I'll speak to the consumer council because this is going to happen again with other plays.
(On the topic, the play looks at many themes apart from different approaches to educaton - the teaching and meaning of history and a mathaphor, as in Forty Years On, that a school has the potential to be a metaphor for English life. btw they are thinking of taking the show to Broadway)
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Pumpkin - not wishing to be rude, but can't you do a amazon or eBay search? Around US$50 on eBay and or you can get the VHS, book or audio book from Amazon... :)
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Was this Hong Kong Arts Festival or LCSD? I have contacts in both marketing departments if that will help you.
Partial views can really hurt a performance. Can I ask which theatre you were at? Sometimes the sightlines in HK can be pretty terrible if you're put in the booths. I was put in the booth at the APA and couldn't here a things once because the acoustics in the building were terrible.
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