Play review

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33932, 27 August 1975, Page 14

Play review

Sir, —I have recently been given a copy of the review which your drama critic H.D.McN. wrote of the Elmwood Players’ performance of my play “Treed,” on July 25. This review refers to “hilarious incidentals” as being a feature of my writing, “like the gardener pruning and spraying a woman’s floral hat.” I am sorry your critic was not able to read a copy of the script before basing his definition of my writing upon things which, like this incidental, do not appear in my script.— Yours, etc., CRAIG HARRISON. Palmerston North. August 19, 1975. [H.D.McN. replies: “A theatre critic is primarily concerned with a play in performance rather than in

script form, and even in the case of published plays it is often difficult to distinguish between authorial and production elements. Many details in ‘Treed’ supported my assessment of it and, if the one I chose to cite was wrongly ascribed to the author rather than to the director, I should like to apologise to Mr Harrison — but also to point out that this in no way undermines my evaluation of the play in performance. If Mr Harrison suspects that the play I saw and enjoyed was not entirely his, this is a matter between him and the director; however, it must be emphasised that numerous elements supported my description of it as ‘episodic.’ I am. incidentally, always pleased to read unpublished scripts before production if authors of directors care to send them to me.”]