A THEATRE has started a policy of letting audience decide what they think a theatre show was worth after it is finished.

The Arc in Stockton started its radical new pricing policy at the weekend for a theatre performance by actor Jack Bennett for his show Too Much, Too Young and ended up taking more money than would normally be expected.

The Pay What You Decide policy doesn't extend to typically more popular music and comedy shows but to professional theatre productions which often involve new work.

Stockton's Arc is only the second theatre in the country to take up the policy, the other at Slung Low's Hub in Leeds.

Chief executive of The Arc, Annabel Turpin, explained that the theatre has a tradition of trying to offer something different from classic often shown at Middlesbrough Theatre and the more populist, large-scale productions often shown at Darlington's Civic Theatre.

She said that small, new works performed at The Arc, typically costing £12 or £10 a ticket, had been attracting crowds, sometimes with people travelling as far as Leeds and Newcastle, to see shows they could not access anywhere else.

However she was concerned that the productions had not been attracting new people.

She said: "There's people who genuinely can not afford to come but can now and that's great. Then there's a bigger group of people who can afford to come, but think the risk is too big. They're taking a chance on a new work with actors who are not famous. If we can persuade them to come it will really help us build a new audience.

"One thing which we weren't expecting is our existing customers coming to us and saying, 'this is great, because I'm always trying to persuade a friend to come and this will help.'"

Ms Turpin said a new, small-scale theatre production would expected to attract an audience of 40 people compared to about 220 for a comedy show, despite tickets for comedy being more expensive.

The audience for Too Much, Too Young by Jack Bennett, about an identity crisis, attracted 30 people. However The Arc took about 50 per cent more per ticket than it would normally expect.

Ms Turpin said that it appeared that a third of the people who came were either new to theatre or to The Arc.

The next Pay What You Decide show will be My Brother's Country, on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 24 and 25. It is about a poet refugee from Iran who is murdered.

Tickets still need to be booked but no money is charged. Call 01642 525199 or log on to arconline.co.uk