"RECREATIONS OF LONDON."
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—As a subscriber to the Spectator I wonder what prompts your choice of plays, films, &c., to mention in your " Recrea.
tions of London." I could understand it if you chose certain entertainments, of which you approve, to recommend to your readers. I do not, however, understand why you should go out of your way to do deliberate harm (as far as your influence goes) to the enterprises in question by picking them out for a sneering or uncomplimentary comment. In your review of any piece, I quite agree that you arc perfectly right to say exactly what you feel about any play produced ; but your " Recreations of London " column does not seem to me to come into the same category. I cannot see why this invidious choice is made, as it looks like spite, but I cannot believe it can be so. Surely the way to treat enter- tainments which do not appeal to you is to ignore them in this column and not to try to " crab " them. There certainly are many people who do not agree with your com- ments, and as one who is interested in the management of theatres I feel that a stab in the back from the Spectator is very unfair in these days, when it is so difficult, financially, to keep theatres open at all.—I am, Sir, &c., 10 Stratton Street, London, FV. 1. ALEC. L. REA. [We are glad to take this opportunity to explain the basis of our choice of plays to mention in the " Recreations of London." Our comment of " rather dreary " which we made on Mr. Galsworthy's play of The Forest last week is perhaps what Mr. Rea takes exception to. Our point was this : any play which is written by Mr. Galsworthy and produced by the Reandean Company is of double importance. Readers of the Spectator will obviously want to know about such a play. Hence the service which the Spectator seeks to perform for its readers can only be performed by giving our opinion, to the best of our ability, on the play. The " Recreations of London " column is intended to give some sort of key to the miscellaneous " shows " of the town. Obviously The Forest is an important one of these, and it is the function of a newspaper to comment on it, and, as Mr. Rea says, to comment sincerely.—En. Spectator.]
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