Madam, - As a member of the cast of the Gate's current production of Salome, I really must take issue with Peter Crawley's high-handed and dismissive review ( The Irish Times, March 22nd).
I have been involved with this production since its first outing in 1988 under the direction of Steven Berkoff and have thus been able to experience every stage of its evolution at first hand. I believe it to be an important and compelling piece of physical theatre, of a kind all too rare on the Irish stage, that fully deserves to be appreciated by new audiences.
The integrity of Berkoff's unique vision has never been compromised in subsequent revivals. Indeed, the piece has been developed and refined through the years and has benefited on each occasion from the fresh energy and ideas of new cast members. No corners have been cut in the painstaking work on the physical movement of the piece and I would contend that the current cast achieve "feats of fluid motion and liquid grace" every bit the equal of their predecessors, along with imaginative characterisations and precise choral work.
I am thus particularly irked by Mr Crawley's contention that the current chorus has lost sight of Berkoff's original message and "appears to have been directed as though by Chinese whispers". The only Chinese whispers I am aware of are those that somehow prompted your reviewer to mention the ludicrous rumour that Al Pacino was lined up to make a guest appearance in the show. How can an informed theatre critic entertain such nonsense even fleetingly?
What moment of madness induced him to display such a deep misunderstanding of how theatre works? Or was he too busy sharpening his hatchet to notice, or even to care? - Is mise,
MICHAEL JAMES FORD, St Laurence Place, Fontenoy Street, Dublin 7.