The Stage

Tackling poor theatre security

Published Monday 1 October 2007 at 17:10

It’s reassuring that ATG is taking steps to help protect West End audiences from terrorism.

A good place to start would be to deal with the lamentably ineffective bag searches that have become a feature of theatregoing over the last few years.

Anyone who knows anything at all about security knows a security measure that doesn’t work is more dangerous than no security at all. Poor security does nothing to reduce a threat, but the illusion of protection encourages people to let their guard down and be less suspicious of things that ought to cause concern.

With that in mind, it’s disturbing that every bag search I’ve seen in the West End has been easy to evade. They probably make the most gullible of theatregoers feel safer but the thought that anyone might believe such searches are doing any good scares the crap out of me.

Right now the only terrorists these searches are likely to catch are those who’d find it a challenge to spell bomb, much less build one.

If ATG and other theatre owners are serious about terrorism they need to start by making theatres at least a little less simple to attack.

Matthew Winn

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