Letter: Audience makes the play at the Globe

Sir: What is the matter with Victoria McKee? Her essay on the prologue season at the new Globe theatre starts under the title "How does our play please you?" (24 September) and fails to address this question. Like an undergraduate who found the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations under the Christmas tree, she floods her article with Shakespearean lines, and after some snide comments about Paul Smith suits and American tourists with Harrods bags she arrives at the grand conclusion that there is still room for improvement in the use of this new venue.

I went to see Two Gentlemen with friends on the last Saturday of its run and we were most impressed by the directness and the intensity of the experience, particularly when standing in front of the stage as "groundlings". The connection felt between crowd and actors in this thinnest of plays was nothing short of extraordinary and must hint at the possibilities for future productions at the Globe. Maybe it wasn't the learning experience that Ms McKee was looking for, but as a theatrical event it was unique.

PETER KAHL

Maidenhead, Berkshire