COUNCILLOR Griffiths is perfectly entitled to "hate and slate" this year's festival play A Winter's Tale. However, on the evidence of his letter (July 3), it is difficult to determine whether it is the playwright, the play or the production which prompted him into print.

Surely any critic should offer a dispassionate assessment of the director's aims, whether these aims are misguided or perceptive and whether a particular interpretation of the play works theatrically in performance.

Of course such judgements are subjective, but they must be grounded in a close grasp of the play.

If Councillor Griffiths, with Leontes, has "drunk and seen the spider", it would be interesting to know precisely what it is he finds so toxic in Bogdonov Brew.

Ian Barge

Ludlow.