The Christopher Nolan film Oppenheimer is undoubtedly impressive and absorbing for large parts of its three hours. But it fails to depict the true horror of the bomb’s effects on those on the ground in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Your article about the film (Anti-nuclear groups welcome Oppenheimer film but say it fails to depict true horror, 21 July) refers to the “virtual absence of the nuclear debate from the arts over the past three decades”. Yet the production of my stage play The Mistake, performed by me and the young Japanese actor Riko Nakazono, puts the Japanese experience of the bombing of Hiroshima front and centre.
Premiering at the Edinburgh festival last year and after sellout runs at London’s Arcola theatre this year, it will now tour the country to 28 venues including a number of schools.
However, Arts Council England has recently (and inexplicably) refused funding for this play with its themes of such urgency and importance.
This year’s tour of the play will proceed without public money, funded by myself and supporters and friends. Would that we had the tiniest fraction of the film’s budget.
Michael Mears
London
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