Playwright Sarah Kane committed suicide "while the balance of her mind was disturbed", the Southwark coroner Selina Lynch has ruled. On the basis of evidence given at the inquest, her father is considering taking legal advice against King's College Hospital because staff did not check on her for ninety minutes before she actually hanged herself.
The winner of the Vivian Ellis prize for the most promising musical is Beach Radio by Gerard Kenny and Drey Shepperd. The show also won the Stage Book Writer Award and the Herbert Kretzmer Lyricist Award.
Dudley Moore has brain disease
Some months ago actor and musician Dudley Moore was diagnosed as having Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a degenerative brain condition related to Parkinson's Disease and is now having vision problems, although he is still in the early stages of the disease. He decided to make this public last week to "bring attention to this rare malady that afflicts thousands of people, many of whom remain undiagnosed."
In 1997 Moore had open heart surgery and has had four strokes.
The takeover of online ticketing company Dataculture by Tickets.com may lead to contracts with theatres having to be re-negotiated, The Stage reports.
The Royal Court paid £43,000 for a system which would allow customers to book directly through the theatre's Website without the necessity to go through the ticketing company's system. The deal was signed just hours before the merger was announced and now the theatre has been told that the contract has been withdrawn and that bookings will have to go through Tickets.com's system and incur an 11% (plus VAT) commission.
The matter was debated last week at the TMA conference at the Newcastle Playhouse. Opening the debate, ticketing consultant John Pinchbeck said, "Online customers shoud be abel to access venues directly and not ust through these agencies, which charge a 10 to 25% booking or 'convenience' fee - or any other euphemism they may use."