Sir, – The simplicity of my brief letter (November 4th) seems to have confused many people, as some have chosen to find an implication in it that was not intended. To be clear, no theatre should be under any obligation to produced a poorly written play by a man or a woman simply because of who they are. Quotas based on race, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, and so on, should have no place on stage.
Plays are rejected because a producer thinks they don’t meet their own personal preference. If that preference is influenced by an unconscious gender bias, then we must look at ways of addressing that.
The imbalance in the number of produced plays by women is embarrassing and unacceptable but it implies that something clearly is amiss in the selection process and it is to there we need to go back to in order to move forward. – Yours, etc,
JIMMY MURPHY,
Dublin 12.