Disenchantment
Sir : As a drama director of some experience I have long suffered the delusion that a director's job was to interpret his author— if the author is of any importance, at least— faithfully and carefully. Over the past de- cade this delusion has made me feel very much the odd man out. I am, therefore, as delighted as a man in a desert who spots his first oasis, to read Kenneth Hurren's comments on Peter Brook's version of Shakesnlare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Am I, after all, not alone in my belief? At least I have one highly intelligent critic on my side. And when two are gathered together *e beliefs they hold may spread. One may even reach the stage when drama, like music, is performed as closely as pos- sible to the original creator's intentions. If that event occurs then your drama critic's splendid and, in these days, well-nigh heroic attack will have provided one of the first breaches in the wall that has been erected, apparently, to hide great drama's true inten- tions from the ordinary public.
Basil Ashmore Far Corner, Stubbs Wood, Amersham, Bucks
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