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Published Monday 9 October 2006 at 11:30

Sofie Mason’s article about redressing the balance of theatre criticism with her new website OffWestEnd.com hit the nail on the head (Insight, September 28, page 6). 

I’m a young playwright with a small scale show currently touring with Half Moon Young People’s Theatre (www.halfmoon.org.uk). With the honourable exception of the stalwart Stage and a couple of others, we have really struggled to get arts editors to cover our show. It’s a hard-hitting story about pirate radio in the inner cities, produced by a publicly funded professional company, with production values every bit as high as any mainstream new writing venue. The same show produced elsewhere would get coverage in every daily - as did my first play at Soho Theatre in 2003.

Having written for both Soho and Half Moon I have been shocked by the lack of critical interest in and respect for what is broadly known as the “young people’s sector”. There still seems to be a perception among the arts pages that the work being produced here is some rickety TIE tat playing a handful of disinterested schools. This simply isn’t the case and hasn’t been for more than ten years. 

The quality is now at least as good and often better than that of many of their mainstream peers on ten times their subsidy. Moreover, this sector is responsible for launching whole generations of playwrights, actors and directors, many of whom go on to gain mainstream plaudits. Young people’s companies lead by example by commissioning edgy new work on topics at the heart of the national debate.

We’re very grateful for the support of Sofie Mason and OffWestEnd.com. Their vision leaves their print-based colleagues looking as if they are playing catch-up.

Fin Kennedy

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