Will Waspe
The Arts Council last week put out another lavishly produced Report — this one on the "planning and redevelopment of London's entertainment area with special reference to the theatre." Among the waffle is some sound sense, most of it obvious enough without putting Sir James Richards to the trouble or the taxpayer to the expense of this special Report.
There is, as Waspe sees it, one vital matter affecting the future of theatres. It is not that old, uneconomic and often not especially picturesque or comfortable buildings should not be pulled down just because they are theatres. It is that the rule requiring that buildings erected in their place Should also include theatres should be (a) quite rigidly applied, and (b) extended to ensure that such replacement theatres remain theatres.
Without (a) we lost the Alhambra, Daly's, the Gaiety, the Saville, St. James's and the Windmill. Without (b) we saw the Prince Charles converted almost instantly into a cinema, while the Royalty was only fortuitously reclaimed from that fate.
Children's choice
A filmgoing friend, encouraged by the award of the 'A' certificate, after much wrangling, to Michael Winner's Scorpio, took his young son along with him to see it. He was disconcerted to find the film preceded by a screened notice announcing that there were parts of the film that parents of children under fourteen may not wish them to see. Clearly the only parents able to come to any useful decision about that would be those who had already seen the film. My friend took a chance, uneasily, and stayed — only to discover a further absurdity in the warning notice, since he rapidly reached the conclusion that the only people who could conceivably take Scorpio seriously would be wider fourteen anyway.
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