29 DECEMBER 2001, Page 27

Exit, pursued by a mouse

From Mr Francis Rentoul

Sir: As Ann Leslie wrote (`Before the Beatles' first LP', 15/22 December), in the 1950s the Windmill was the only public theatre where the Lord Chamberlain allowed naked women to appear on the stage, as long as they stood stock-still. When Michel Gyarmathy, the director of the Polies Bergere was invited to bring his company over to the Windmill, he had been warned about this but he simply could not believe that this veto existed and decided to break this 'stupid' rule. In a London pet shop he bought two dozen mice, and when all his dancers were in position, motionlessly depicting a tableau vivant, from the wings Gyarmathy released the mice on to the stage. The girls moved.

Francis Rentoul

Guildford, Surrey