Awarding roles

Published Tuesday 13 May 2008 at 12:20

You note in writing about the state of theatre in Australia (Richard Jordan, page 11, May 1) that having an Academy Award-winning actress (Cate Blanchett) at the helm of the Sydney Theatre Company could well be no bad thing.

Cate Blanchett in Plenty at the Albery Theatre, London in 1999 Photo: Tristram Kenton

In fact, it is worth noting that the appointment of Ms Blanchett and her husband as co-artistic director has, predictably, hardly pleased everyone. For a start, neither she nor her husband have had any experience at directing or administering theatre companies and second, the appointment was never the subject of any application process. And of course, drama schools in Australia continue to produce unemployed directors who are asking themselves whether it was worth all the training in the first place.

Some how I doubt whether the National Theatre or the theatre community in Britain would accept the appointment of a British actress to head that institution based on the ownership of an Academy Award.

Michael Rolfe

Mowbray Road

London

NW6

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