As a member of the Max Wall Society – known as bricks – I was fascinated to read Michael Billington’s review of The Entertainer (31 August). Max Wall himself played Archie Rice in John Osborne’s own revival at the Greenwich theatre to much acclaim. Although Billington praises Kenneth Branagh’s performance, he regrets that the brilliance of Osborne’s play, which lies in the use of the dying of music hall as a metaphor for the declining British empire, is lost in this production. Last month Simon Callow, also a brick, traced the history of Osborne’s masterpiece and mentioned the Max Wall production, and acknowledged that he was able, with his music hall background, to retain the allegory which made the play so powerful. And unlike Branagh in the song and dance routines which were “almost too good”, Max offered them to the audience in an underplayed, take it or leave it fashion, just as the author intended.
Paul Foxall
Collingbourne Ducis, Wilthsire
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