No 39 -- Winter 1992–3 Edited by Michael Walters
Dear Michael,
May I be excused from writing a review of MIKADO and YEOMEN? It is quite a few weeks since I saw them and I really would prefer them to be fresher in my mind before I wrote for publication. However, in answer to your query, I think the actor you saw as Pooh–Bah and Shadbolt left the cast for family reasons and was replaced by Keel Watson, who took over Pooh–Bah and the Lieutenant, with John Rath moving from Lieutenant to Shadbolt*. I echo your sentiments about this – Quite unnecessary and most inappropriate [to have a black person in the cast.]
Yours sincerely, GEOFFREY DIXON
[*Was it deemed racist for a black actor to play an underdog of lowly caste like Shadbolt? And wouldn't it have been dramatically better for Watson to have been the Mikado, in which role his colour would not have been seen under the Kabuki make–up? Or am I being racist? Ed.]
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