Are you sitting comfortably?

I heard on the R4 Today programme the other day that the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford had commissioned its new theatre seats not from a trusty UK supplier but from an Italian manufacturer called Poltrona Frau which, amongst others, designs the seats for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. As it happens I drive an Alfa, albeit a rather old one now, and the seat is comfortable but hard and so, like Mr Naughtie, I was puzzled by the RSC's choice. It seems that in their new, thrust stage auditorium the Company is determined to keep audiences alert and 'on the edges of their seats', literally. Not for them the lush armchairs much beloved by many luxury cinema goers.
This is what I enjoyably experienced last week when I went to see 'Sex & The City 2' (escapist nonsense but a great girls' night out) at the Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise. Formerly an Edwardian theatre, this privately owned venue is now an intimate screen space with deep, well spaced chairs and armchairs, plus a bar and cafe. Friendly, easy-going and with a great programme, the Lexi covenants all its profits to a sustainability charity in South Africa so lots of reasons to go again.
By contrast I sat on the plastic grass verge of the Royal Festival Hall last Saturday, listening to 'The Fishermens Friends', folk singers from Cornwall, part of Richard Thompson's Meltdown Festival, enviously gazing up at those lucky enough to have nabbed the deckchairs. And as if my bottom hadn't suffered enough, the next evening I sat on the floor of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, listening to a Salon Series debate about the justification for investment in art and performances in public spaces. I'm afraid that I wasn't sufficiently engaged by the observations of the panel to be distracted from the numbness of my bum, despite the provision of a flat, foam Tate cushion. Let's hope that the new sporty seats in the RSC auditorium do a better job.