REPERTORY THEATRES
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
SIR,—The protest of Mr. John Duff and the letter of Mr. John Bourne overlook one- important factor. The audience. They it is who get the performances they deserve. If they are easily amused with a " Christmas charade," then they will be served with that type of entertainment. If, on the other hand, they demand a high standard of production and per- formance, the producer is kept on his toes and a strenuous endeavour is made that each production will be better than the last. This is proved by Mr. Duff.
Mr. Ronald Kerr, the producer at the Intimate Theatre, Palmers Green, whose work Mr. Duff praised, has a very virile Playgoers' Society attached to his theatre. This is not a fan club, but a society endeavouring to further the art of the theatre in every form. The Society was formed by Mr. Kerr, from his experiences with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Playgoers' Society, in May, 1942, with an executive committee which included the mayor, the producer, a vicar, schoolmaster, actress and a bank manager, with the local Medical Officer of Health as chairman. Later the Medical Officer joined H.M. Forces and Mr. 0. D. W. Berry, the schoolmaster, became, and is still, the chairman.
The Society meets at the theatre each month and the meetings have ranged from a Brains Trust which included Lewis . Casson and Eric Portman, a fantasy performed by the Incognitos, a talk by Mr. George Pleydell Bancroft with Sir Norman Birkett in the chair, play-readings, talks by playwrights and British and foreign producers, to discussions on the play that had been performed that week at the theatre. There is, of course, no desire on the part of the Society to take credit for the excellent work of the producer, but without a doubt a producer or management would hesitate to present anything slag-dash or amateurish before a critical and keen audience, if only from a mercenary point of
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