As a professional actor, I’ve worked extensively in all media for more than 45 years. Voice expert Patsy Rodenburg’s resignation from the Guildhall increased my deep anxiety at the diminishing emphasis of the actor’s core skills in drama training, to the serious detriment of one of the UK’s historic art forms (‘Without craft, an actor is a liability’: how row over teaching standards is causing a rift in UK theatre industry). Detailing the causes and radical implications of her resignation is a huge topic, not least of all, the malignant erosion of support for the arts that this government has tirelessly overseen.
To work regularly, to make a living in such a fickle, chronically oversubscribed profession is success. Many actors will attest that the most important quality for success is luck. What is left unsaid is that readiness is all. Readiness attracts luck. Readiness is built on a mastery of breathing, voice, and movement. Without a disciplined adeptness in these, it isn’t possible to confidently relax; it isn’t possible to intuitively, spontaneously play to illuminate our narratives and art.
Helping to develop these subtle powers has been Patsy Rodenburg’s rare gift in a pre-eminent drama school and beyond. Her professional inspiration is global. Her resignation has weakened the canary’s song in our cultural coal mine.
William Hope
Framlingham, Suffolk
Another fine mess
At last, a piece about how Labour governments have inherited toxic legacies from the Tories (“Toxic budgets: the chancellors who left behind a poisonous legacy”, Business). This needs to be more widely discussed because people just don’t realise the challenges Labour administrations have faced. I’m always telling my children how Labour has had to clear up the mess left by successive Conservative administrations. This Phillip Inman article is now displayed on the side of my freezer. Will Mr Inman now add the latest budget to the toxic legacy?
Rosemary Carnell
Crosskeys, Gwent
Beacon of hope
I cannot find the words to adequately express my admiration for Beacon High School in north London ( Inside the troubled London school that stopped excluding pupils and restored calm). No other approach seems to have made such an impact; where the policies come from that cast disruptive pupils out on the streets in such numbers to get up to yet more trouble defeats reason and logic. Well done, Beacon, pupils, staff and, of course, the headteacher. Other troubled schools/academies, take note, and adapt where possible and appropriate.
Jacqueline Simpson
Garforth, Leeds
It’s good to talk
I’m with your Scottish letter writer in thinking that conversations about the weather are life affirming and quite the opposite of “burblings” (Letters). I wonder why some people seem to think “small talk” is beneath them; do they think themselves so important, their time so precious that none is spare for others?
In my book, to be able to say something pleasant and welcoming to anyone we meet, carefully tweaked to suit their age and appearance, indicates quick wittedness, social skills and an interest in our fellow humans. Even if someone looks away or is stony faced, a smile or shrug might be sufficient to make their day better.
Susan Treagus
Didsbury, Manchester
Updike was no monk
Tomiwa Owolade writes persuasively about the rewards of ritual in a simple life, but he might want to think again about describing John Updike as a “happy monk” (“Make coffee. Shower. Clean the loo. In an age of choice, rituals are the key to happiness”).
The great writer was serially unfaithful, seeking comfort in religious faith and sexual adventure. As Updike explained it: “If you have a secret, submerged, second life, you have somehow transcended or outwitted the confines of a single life.” That’s one way of excusing infidelity.
Suzy Powling
Leiston, Suffolk
These children deserve more
Your article ‘Profiteering off children’: care firms in England accused of squeezing cash from councils told only half the story. It’s not just care facilities that are charging exorbitant fees, it is private special schools too. My colleagues and I wrote to 24 local authorities with freedom of information requests asking how much was spent on private special school places. All the authorities used such schools, with a spend of up to £300,000 per child per year. One large county council sent 1,765 children to these schools in 2022, at a cost to the council of £84m.
These costs have been rising relentlessly over the past few years. The most obvious question that arises is whether the expenditure on a private special school placement – almost 50 times the cost of a regular school placement – could not be used more imaginatively on some kind of alternative, inclusive solution to a child’s needs.
Gary Thomas, Emeritus Professor in Education, University of Birmingham
Zionist? Anti-Zionist?
Kenan Malik is quite right that “Islamophobia” is a less-than-ideal term that conflates criticism of a religion with prejudice and bigotry against Muslims, and that the latter is better called out precisely as such (“Blurring the line between criticism and bigotry fuels hatred of Muslims and Jews”, Comment).
But he risks falling into the same trap when he transfers the idea to “anti-Zionism” in relation to antisemitism. Zionism, an ideal born out of centuries of persecution in the Jewish diaspora, means nothing more nor less than the aspiration of the Jewish people to have self-determination in their own country. As such, it is compatible with a two-state solution that would see the same aspiration fulfilled for both Palestinians and Jews.
Opposition to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, its treatment of Palestinians or its bombardment of Gaza should be called out as such.
Labelling them “Zionist”, now commonly employed as a term of abuse, plays into the hands of extremists, since anti-Zionism implies not a peaceful settlement between the two peoples but the abolition of the Israeli state, an objective that would only widen and prolong the cycle of suffering.
It also implies that the Jewish people do not deserve the nationhood that other peoples take for granted, explaining why many Jews consider anti-Zionism (properly understood) to be antisemitic.
Adrian Lister
London N22
A hit, a very palpable hit
Vanessa Thorpe’s thoughtful piece made me wonder whether theatres need to try quite so hard (Walkouts and rows in the stalls as politics enters Theatreland stage left – or maybe right).
Early in 2019, with the Brexit debacle at its height, I was at several performances of Richard II at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London. When John of Gaunt declared that “England… hath made a shameful conquest of itself”, towards the end of his “scepter’d isle” speech, the reaction was palpable: gasps of recognition, wry chuckles, even stamping of feet and spontaneous applause. The audience got it every time – even 400 years later.
Jane Lee
Kingston upon Thames, London
