The critic's function
Sir: What is the function of a drama critic? According to your own Kenneth Hurren, ' a worthwhile piece " of fringe theatre still deserves half the space he gives to a West End comedy "of bantering inconsequentiality," even though the actors are " laceratingly good," while the others "keel) the fun bubbling cheerfully" for "connoisseurs of comedy acting." In fact he spends as many lines on another play which is "beyond redemption " as he does in praise — if that's the right word — for
Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena; which, it seems, he has only just heard of. Does he really think this South African writer is wholly and entirely concerned with "the melancholy predicament of 'coloureds' in his wretched country "? Mr Hurren's wording there betrays the current feeling — the hangover after a decade of hysteria — of English fastidious boredom with that country. Even so — and although he is also jaded to fragility, as are all who bear the cross of reviewing — even so, he should give this play another chance. He might just find that it merits eighteen lines too, like Look, No Hands! — or even the whole column that he gives to Butley, with its " entertaining " hero — both so much higher on his list. True, these plays look to be commercial successes, a matter not to be simply ignored, or despised. Nevertheless, I ask again: What is the function of a drama critic — as opposed to What's On?
M. M. Car/in c/o Oxford and Cambridge Club, London SW1
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