The price of a theatre or opera ticket can shock a wallet, as household inflationary and interest-rate pressures bite in the wake of income losses over the two years of the pandemic. Arts companies and venues, however, are offering deals for the budget-strapped – if you are willing to invest a little time and effort to dig out the bargains.

Box office

Photo © Lana Rastro/Alamy Stock Photo

Consider, for instance, Sydney Theatre Company, which offers “Thirties” tickets for all productions: $30 tickets made available online 9am every Thursday for the following week’s shows. So, if you want a $30 ticket to the recently opened Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (which received a four-and-a-half star review from Limelight), created by the team behind The Picture of Dorian Gray, check the website at 9am on a Thursday and you could find yourself with a ticket for the next week – even though the show is selling like hot-cakes and has just extended its season to 10 September.

Thirties are held back for every performance, says an STC spokeswoman, although the company cannot say how many are...