SO YOU WANT TO BE AN AUDIENCE
Slit,--The delightful article by Alan Brien on the implied state of seige which exists between audience and staff in many West End theatres is timely. It •is, as he writes, one factor in the numerical decline among regular intelligent theatregoers, many of whom are middle-aged or older, and remember too well the civilised, courteous pre-war West End nights, with their attendant ease and comfort, not to mention dignity.
Although thoroughly .pecurate, Mr. Brien's itinerary of odioUs eccentricities omits smite. One might include the cacophony of washing-up (accom- panied by raucous female cries) which, in upper regions, accompanies the second act of any work at
Covent Garden; the aggressively determined stomp- ing by buxom usherettes (hellbent on their endless, ultra-important errands) across the carpeted but all- too-echoing floors of smaller West End theatres during the finest moment of the play; the male jere- miahs who (quite arbitrarily) do their best to be obstructive, offensive, difficult and disappointing the moment one enters the foyer; and the miserable war- time habit of switching off the theatre's central heat- ing an hour before curtain-fall, which still prevails.— Yours faithfully,
BENNITT GARDINER 14 Ulster Place, Upper Harley Street, NW 1
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