Book theatre tickets here

Are you considering booking seats at the Mediterranean Conference Centre? It should be straightforward enough, you think, but it certainly is not.

The MCC has been in operation for over 25 years but apparently it still needs big-time surgery. After a quarter of a century it still makes booking seats a harrowing experience. Now how can any theatre get that one wrong?

Hopeful bookers should be aware that:

(a) it's no use calling the numbers indicated in the directory; if anyone picks up the phone it is your lucky day, go for Super 5. Many have tried at different times of the day, and even had a go at it on different days, but with no such luck;

(b) the home page does offer a 'Book theatre tickets here' button which allows you to write to bookings@mcc.com.mt. So you write, and you actually receive an answer; only it is an automatically generated one which, as you will have guessed, leaves you ticketless and completely clueless.

This might make you opt for getting your tickets at the door on the night. That might be pushing your luck more than a bit. You might find the tickets you were interested in have all been taken. So, what do you do? You probably have guessed right again: yes, get the bus to Valletta (sorry if you live in Mellieha; so very sorry if you live in Gozo), trudge all the way down to the MCC and book - and don't forget to go back home. Yes, that is what most patrons are doing.

They have given up on complaining: it gets you nowhere, they say. Perhaps that is why the situation remains unsolved.

Will the management of the MCC try to prove their loyal patrons wrong? Or at least could they be so kind as to explain why the two ways of booking offered by all respectable theatres are not available at the MCC?