Hunger Games theatre goer describes ‘dangerous rush over wobbly stairs’ in ‘nightmare’ opening show

The Hunger Games on Stage preview last night has been described as a ‘dangerous nightmare’ by a furious attendee, as others have also taken to social media to share their chaotic experiences.

Trouble began when attendees found themselves still queueing in the rain at 7.45pm – 15 minutes after the show was supposed to begin. Having received an email telling guests to be there at least 45 minutes before kick off, one fan Katie Davies, 33, was left outside for hours, before it eventually began a whole hour late.

Further to this, construction workers appeared to still be working on the theatre on Katie’s 6pm arrival, inside and outside the building.

‘I could immediately see there were going to be problems, as there were builders outside in high vis jackets pressure washing the ground,’ she tells Metro.

‘The theatre had glass windows so you could see inside, and you could see the amount of builders there. They were still wearing hardhats, carrying massive planks of wood up and down stairs. You could hear drilling, sawing, and I’m thinking, this theatre is not ready at all.’

Another The Hunger Games fan Erin, 26, who flew from Ireland for the preview night of the stage adaptation in the purpose-built Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre, tells Metro how the theatre ‘looked like a construction site’ inside and out.

‘After a while I just took the decision to leave because I was so upset and overwhelmed,’ she said.

In the queue – which was said to be wrapped around the block with no sign of staff helping concerned ticket-holders – Katie discovered some people had flown from America for the show, while she herself had travelled from Sheffield and booked a hotel for the night.

‘People wanted the bathroom, children outside stood in the rain for two hours with no updates,’ she said. ‘It would have gone a long way to say, “Hi, be patient we are working on this.” Absolutely nothing.

‘There were security people running around but not telling us anything. One yelled “happy Hunger Games” at us. I don’t know if it was supposed to lighten the mood but it annoyed a lot of people.’

But Katie’s concerns weren’t confined to the queueing chaos, or the unsightly aesthetics of the supposed state-of-the-art theatre, which she said looked like an ‘unfinished warehouse’ with screens covered in ‘plastic wrap’ and ladders strewn on balconies.

Or indeed the downstairs bar, which was not in use; or the toilet queues which stretched on and on; or the moment she was told her seat didn’t actually exist.

‘The amount of people who were so confused, didn’t know what was going on, and were just trying to help each other through it,’ she recalled.

Katie, who is a regular preview show attendee, was more concerned that at times the chaos was ‘dangerous’.

‘There was just one wobbly staircase to get 1,200 out of the building so in the interval it was dangerous,’ she said. ‘At the end of the show it was horrific. There were so many people trying to get on this one tiny staircase, which could only have two people side-by-side at once. People were pushing, shoving and trying to get out.’

Many people were trying to catch their trains at the end of the night, which was unlikely considering Katie only got out of the theatre at 11.50pm, she says, 1 hour and 20 minutes after the scheduled end.

‘There were people pushing and shoving to try and get down the stairs to make their trains and it just felt so unsafe and so dangerous. I don’t think it was ready to open at all,’ she said.

The show itself – an adaptation of the popular book and laterly film series by Suzanne Collins – was tarnished for Katie by the whole experience, but also a missing cast member due to illness, which she agreed ‘happens’ but on top of everything else left a sour taste.

The problem here was there was said to be ‘no understudy’, and so the fight director stepped in for some scenes, with another person reading the part off-stage. In some scenes the character was simply ‘completely missing’.

Meanwhile, disability rights activist Sophie-Jayne Butler posted on TikTok that, like Erin, she left the show before it had started ‘with a refund’ because her seat ‘wasn’t accessible’.

‘I’m absolutely fuming,’ she said, ‘I couldn’t see anything from my seat.’

Sophie said she went to the box office and asked if there was anywhere else for her to move, but they said they couldn’t do anything about it.

‘I’m so so disappointed because I’ve looked forward to this for so many months and I really, really wanted it to be so good. I just don’t get how in 2025 you still are having accessibility problems like this.’

Metro has contacted the theatre and production companies for comment.

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