Madam, - It must have been very disappointing for many fine Irish actresses to see your front-page photograph of Alan Stanford being made up for the part of Lady Bracknell in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest at the Abbey(July 26th).
Many of them will have seen a missed opportunity to play a great part written for women - and they should ask why. Yes, yes, Shakespeare bent the genders and many of his young female characters were played by men. Wilde too was intrigued by the nature of our sexuality and the masks we place in front of it to reveal the inner self.
But will these reasons be enough to justify casting men in four excellent parts for women? I think not, and I won't go to see this travesty, no matter how hilarious Alan Stanford looks as he bends that word "handbag". - Yours, etc,
COLM QUILLIGAN,
Heytesbury Street,
Dublin 8.