The theatre’s accounts reveal that half of the tickets for performances on the main stage were given away as complimentary tickets to students and others.

The situation is slightly better for the smaller stages, but many complimentary tickets were also given away there.

Some 64,000 tickets were sold for 396 performances but the number of theatregoers grew to 107,000.

It is hard to check whether the holders of complimentary tickets have actually seen the shows, HVG observes.