STAGE DESIGNING
S1R,—Your drama critic, Anthony Hartley, asks why is American stage designing so superior to ours (Spectator, June 8). Perhaps some of the following facts are contributory.
Managements and critics on Broadway emphasise the qualities that a good designer can bring to heighten the dramatic intention of an author. His work is respected as an integral part of a first-rate production. A union sees that he is paid a living wage. In this country only those for whom it is not the only means of subsistence can afford to design sets and costumes. Moreover, it is the excep- tion when a critic mentions the visual side of a play. The Evening Standard, in emulation of America, gives Oscars for the best theatre con- tributions during the year, but the designer is not invited to Lord Beaverbrook's prize- giving.
London managements work on the un- challengeable hypothesis that no play succeeds on account of the decor, and cynically give the public a cheap run-of-the-mill production with sets that would have been considered worthy of a touring company before the 1914 war. It is sad to look down today's list of London 'attractions' and to realise how few of England's first-rate designers are employed at the moment on their home ground. England and the Commonwealth abound in young painters and designers of enormous vitalitY and talent, and there are many fine colleges' where stage design is still being taught with intelligence and courage, but apart from ballet and an occasional opera, where is there an opportunity for the designer to add lustre to the British theatre?—Yours faithfully,
8 Pelham Place, SW7 CECIL BEATON
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