Any regional theatre would no doubt like to believe it attracts an unusually discerning audience but few could back up such a claim as convincingly as Theatre Royal Brighton which, throughout its history, has been used as a testing ground for plays on their way to the West End.

Former theatre manager Anne Travers, who worked at the theatre for almost three decades, recalls: "They used to say, try a play out in Brighton before you take it to London, and if Brighton doesn't like it, don't bother!

"The reason was that Brighton audiences just wouldn't put up with something if they didn't like it. The seats would go up - bang, bang, bang - and out they'd walk. Or they'd tear up their programme and throw it at you.

"I couldn't believe it the first time it happened to me."

"There is the famous seat-slamming,"

agrees Chief Executive Julien Boast.

"Our audiences still do it on occasion. I think it's wonderful. They're a really intelligent audience. Honestly, we add about three or four minutes to a show, because Brighton audiences get 15 per cent more of the gags."

Stephen Unwin, Artistic Director of English Touring Theatre, describes Brighton audiences as, "bloody discerning", adding: "There's a great diversity of age, and they are pretty tough and scrupulous, which is great."

The reason for these high standards, presumably, is that Brighton arts-goers are a little spoilt compared to their counterparts in other areas of the country and it has long been that way.

Thanks to the flying matinees developed by Mrs Nye Chart, Brighton audiences of the 1880s could get to see London shows before anyone else in the country.

Even today, Theatre Royal Brighton's status as a major pre-London venue means that audiences come from all over the South East, including the capital (this season, for instance, capital residents will come to see Antony Sher who is appearing at Theatre Royal Brighton in Kean before moving to London).

Though the insistence upon high standards may not have changed, however, the make-up of Theatre Royal Brighton audiences has altered dramatically over the past two centuries.

For a start, early audiences were rife with class divisions. The well-off would come in their finest outfits. People would come as much to see the ladies' dresses as to see what was on the stage - and sit in the Stalls or Royal Circle.

Meanwhile the gallery, home of the cheap seats, had its own entrance and box office and patrons would queue in the gutter so as not to get in the way of the posh folks.

The other way to get in on the cheap was to wait outside for the wealthier patrons to depart. A programme would often last four or five hours but the gentry would usually leave at half-time and sell their tickets at a reduced price.

Under the Ambassadors Theatre Group, the age range of the audience has expanded considerably, with a younger crowd now frequenting the theatre.

As Julien Boast explains, "We have the most varied database in the city and I love the fact we now have more young people here now, doing things like Slam Dunk, the hip-hop musical.

"But I'm wary of thinking you always have to have youngsters. I adore Michael Tippett, for instance but I am not going to listen to Tippett at the age of 15. I always wanted this to be a building for everyone."