Critics' choice
Sir: As a former theatre critic and author who has seen all the leading Hamlets over a period of 50 years, including the great ones of John Gielgud and Donald Wolfit in the Thirties, may I say, in fairness to the Royal Shakespeare Company, that Michael Pennington's performance at the Aldwych Theatre is the most subtle, intelligent, exciting and moving that I have seen since that time, with original facets of its own; and that if this play by the world's greatest dramatist overwhelms Mark Amory (26 September) 'with fatigue and boredom', he has patently chosen the wrong profession.
The Witch of Edmonton was produced at the Old Vic in 1936, with a memorable cast including Edith Evans, Marius Goring and Beatrix Lehmann; but none of us at that time would have thought of suggesting it was a better or more theatrically stimulating play than Hamlet. Have we indeed moved into a non-literate age?
Audrey Williamson 1 Landseer House, John Islip Street, London SW1
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