Junk'
Sir: I was amused to read Kenneth Hurren's review of my first play, Mad Dog at the Hampstead Theatre Club (August 25). I was particularly interested in his description of it as a
witless nuisance."
In the event, critics' opinions have been divided about this piece. Some have enthused, others have been more reserved, and certainly several of Mr Hurren's peers have shared his pejorative attitude.
What makes Mr Hun-en's comments especially noteworthy, though, is that Mr Hun-en was the first critic to offer an example of what he regarded as wit. He wrote (and one can imagine his shy smile of pleasure as the phrase tittuped from his Olivetti) of Marianne Faithful' that she had "graduated from heroin to heroine."
For mySelf I find the remark callow, tasteless, spiteful and despicable —but 1 like to think of Mr Hun-en and his friends having a 'good chuckle at its pungent social realism, and amusing themselves for hours, picking over its latent menace and subtle innuendo.
And the more I think about it the more I like it. To be attacked by such people has to be regarded as a privilege.
Nicholas Saltzman 39 Oakley Gardens, London SW3
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