[{"node":{"title":"Boyd099","Collections":"Boyd Letters","Contributor":"Boyd Estate","Coverage":"19 Jan","Creator":"Linen Hall Library","Date":"Wednesday, March 16, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"Boyd099","Item Description":"Letter","Keywords":"G.B. Shaw, North","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/boyd099","Publisher":"Linen Hall Library","Relation":"Linen Hall Library","Rights":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA","Scanned image":{"src":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Boyd099_1.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeffDRAFT\n\nThe Editor,\nThe Sunday News\n\nFor favour of publication\n\nSir,\n\nTruly, 'A Sleep of Reason' would seem to have settled on your drama\nreviewer. In one of her two articles in your issue of 18th March she\nhas attributed to me two plays I did not write; but, for her information,\nI did write The street and The Flats.\n\nComment is free, thereforebut 1 sha11 make nolittle comment on your reviewer's\njudgment of my current play at the Lyric Theatre, Facing North.\nButHowever, I must correct/further factual mistakes on her part.\nIt is surely obligatory for a reviewer to read a theatre programme.\nYour reviewer mustn'tcannot have a done so in this instance: the time end\nplace in Facing North are clearly stated there - as well as\nbeinf statedin the text. Also the Black Mountain is clearly\noutlined in Shirley Bork's admirable set, even tothe detail of the\ntelevision mast (illuminated at night).\nAnother factual point:\nAgainthere are no Union leaders portrayed in this play:your\nreviewer must have been asleep. Two factory workers, yes; but\nit is stated clearly that tne Union refused to participate in the dispute.\n\nYour reviewer commented on the acting, particularly that of Louis\nRolston. Mr. Rolston appears to be your reviewer\u2019s bete noire,\n(sorry to use a French phrase, for obviously your reviewer doesn't\nunderstand either French or English, else she would not have coind such\na horror as 'cliched). Mr. Rolston, In myestimationview should not\nbe given the lion's share of thenblame'for this 'appallingly bad\nplay'. That honour', I'm glad to say, restswith me, the author.\nMr, Rolston is one of the finest actors in Ireland, and for Carmel\nMcQuaid to think otherwise is to display her ignorance of acting as\nwell as of the English language. Furthermore, to assert that, with\none exception, r.Rolston did not react to any dramticincident is\ndemonstrably untrue.\nOnce again, your reviewer must have been enjoying her 'Sleep of Reason'\nShe professes ' to hate havingto send r. Holsten under the yoke again'.\nVery well:LikewiseI hate to send herM/s .McQuaid under my yoke for the first and\n(l hope) thelast time.This Her review displays both ignorance and\nilleteracy. Your reviewr's knowledge of drama is negligible; her\npresumption enormous;her taste abysmal. \n\nMy distinguished predecessor, C.B.Bernard Shaw, taught me self- advertisement,\na lesson wiich I digested, but have never as yet put into practice.\nBernardShaw's own phrase was -  as your reviewer doubtless knows\n'beating his own big drum'.Unfortunately that phrase is ambigious\nin this contextI confess Your reviewer impresses me in one aspect of her difficult\n","Type":"Text"}}]