Civic Hall Book a seatBook
Rows of empty red velvet theatre seats under low light
Civic HallThu 12 Nov
K 14Stalls · one idea · 20:00

One idea, one evening.

One speaker. Four hundred red seats. No panel, no slides, no Q&A that's really a comment.Doors at seven. The idea at eight, for fifty minutes. Questions until nine. The bar until it closes.

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01 · The house

Four hundred seats fill from the front.

19:00
doors
Doors. The house lights are up.There's no allocated seating on the night; the ticket is a row, and rows fill from the front because we sell them that way. The best seat in the house is whichever one you're early for.
02 · The season

Six evenings. Six ideas.

0
of six · announced
Thu 24 SepCities should be boring.A transport planner on why nothing interesting should happen on the way to work.
Sold out
Thu 15 OctThe sea is not rising. The land is sinking.A geologist on the difference, and why it changes what to build.
Sold out
Thu 12 NovNobody has ever read the terms and conditions.A contract lawyer on what it would take to make one that somebody would.
Row K left
Thu 10 DecThe best hospital is a boring one.A surgeon on why the interesting cases are the ones that shouldn't have happened.
On sale
Thu 21 JanEvery recipe is a lie about time.A cook on the difference between the written and the real.
On sale
Thu 18 FebSilence is a public service.An acoustician on the one thing a city forgets to build.
On sale
A microphone in sharp focus, an audience blurred behind it in a dark hall

Fifty minutes. Then the argument.

The idea gets fifty minutes because that's how long a good one takes and how long a bad one takes to be found out. Questions are questions; the chair will tell you if yours isn't. Then the bar, where the real ones get asked.

The evening

Seven to half nine. Always the same shape.

You know what you're getting, so you can concentrate on the idea, which is the point of coming.

19:00
Doors.The bar's open, the hall's lit, the speaker is somewhere backstage not eating.
19:55
Bell.A real one. Five minutes. Then the doors close, and they stay closed, because the first two minutes matter.
20:00
The idea.One person, standing, no notes if we can help it, fifty minutes. No slides. If it needs a picture, we print it and put it on your seat.
20:50
Questions.Forty minutes. A microphone comes to you. The chair keeps them short, and keeps them questions.
21:30
The bar.The speaker comes down. Nobody's obliged to stay. Most do.
One evening
£14

Any row. Rows sell from the front, so book early for the front and late for the back, which some people prefer.

The season
£72

All six, the same seat each time if you want it, and the announcement of the next season a week before anyone else.

Under 25 · on the door
£5

Forty seats held back every night for anyone under twenty-five, cash or card, from seven. Unsold ones are released at 19:50.

No booking fee, no printing, no app. The ticket is an email, or your name at the door.
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Book a seat.

Next up: Thursday 12 November, the terms and conditions, row K and behind. Doors at seven. The bell at five to eight. Don't be the person the doors close on.

Book a seat