No 5 -- June 1976 Edited by Michael Walters
"ENGAGED" AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE
As comments which have reached me about this production have been pretty consistently in favour of play and production, it was of great interest to receive the following comment from Mr. L. S. Streatfield in a letter dated 26 November 1975: "Done to death at the Old Vic and only relieved in the last few minutes by the appearance of a stage orchestra! It was beautifully dressed, excellent scenery, well acted except it was largely unintelligible being apparently spoken in imitation Scotch blank verse. No farce could withstand such a treatment and it was exceedingly difficult to understand why anyone could see any merit in so approaching it, and more particularly why the accents were not dropped in the interests of audience comprehension after the first few performances."
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