Critical chutzpah
From Sheridan Morley,
Sir: Could we turn our attention to the scandalous affair of your drama critic? The year or so since you fired me has been, I freely acknowledge, one of bitter rage and regret. And now my successor has been publicly chastised by the Critics' Circle (at a meeting I did not attend). Toby Young has so far noted his inability to locate the National Theatre and, even worse, his inability to stay through a play until the end. And recently he went for the triple (Arts, 13 March), leaving all three shows under review at halftime, and not even mentioning them in a column largely devoted to himself and how he hates being a drama critic.
I write as an unashamed theatre groupie, the third in successive generations of my family. I could find the National Theatre blindfold, and I ritually stay in my seat until the final curtain in case something good happens — on free press seats, it would seem the least I can do. Are your food critics allowed to leave a restaurant having sampled only the starter? Do your book and film critics also give up the ghost halfway through?
There is a serious issue here: theatregoing has never been more expensive or problematic in terms of access and parking. It can easily cost a couple of hundred pounds for one evening at the theatre. At those prices, surely theatregoers deserve an adequate and professional guide as to what they should see and, more important, what they can afford to skip.
Have the grace, Sir, to admit a momentary lapse of editorial judgment. I regard what was 'my' column as having fallen off the back of the magazine and into unworthy hands.
Sheridan Morley
London SW11
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