By Doreen Crowther, Showbusiness Correspondent AS Bolton's Octagon Theatre faces a potentially fatal cash crisis there is a question which must be asked.

Is the theatre staging what the public wants to see?

Because one of the reasons being given for the budget deficit is falling ticket sales.

The question of keeping the customers satisfied while balancing the books is one that faces theatre managements everywhere.

And the Octagon's Artistic Director, Lawrence Till is no exception.

Since Till's tenure started in 1991, the Octagon has prided itself on bringing innovative productions mixed in with tried and tested plays.

There have been spectacular successes.

The Octagon's production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus in 1993 scaled such heights that the BEN presented Till, the director, with a special award and described the production as "theatre on a grand and exciting scale".

But other productions have not found favour with the critics or the public.

In May 1998, the Octagon staged Edward Bond's bleak saga of squalor and degradation Saved. Watching a baby being spat upon, smeared with its own excrement and stoned to death was, unsurprisingly, not to everybody's taste.

Ironically, this present cash crisis comes at a time when the theatre has been pulling in the punters with an excellent festive production of The Wizard of Oz.

Other highspots during the last couple of years have been the wonderfully warm Annie and Fanny - from Bolton to Rome and an hilarious production of the Mikado.

In the Bill Naughton Theatre, Till bravely staged Samuel Becket's Happy Days with an actress up to her neck in scorched earth. Again it was a production not guaranteed to put bums on seats.

Another stomach-churning production was the chilling The Pitchfork Disney. One of the scenes involved a character munching on a cockroach.

Is that what the public wants to see on an evening out?

"Why not if it makes them think?", is one answer.

"No way they would be better of at home watching television," is another. Early one Morning by local playwright Les Smith was a powerfully moving play about the First World War and the execution of a Bolton man for alleged cowardice. Not surprisingly, it was not a laugh-a-minute production and it may be that some theatregoers decided it would not make for a relaxing evening.

It is a hard balancing act to do. Till would argue no doubt, and with considerable justification, that he has made the Octagon a theatre of note, and has brought the public the best in contemporary drama.

Whether this justifies possible sacrifices at the box office is another issue.

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