Women and the Abbey Theatre

Sir, – Jimmy Murphy (November 4th) writes that the Abbey Theatre is "under no obligation to foist poorly written plays on a paying audience just to . . . address balance".

This ignores the fact that the Abbey’s primary source of income is a multimillion euro grant paid annually by taxpayers, half of whom are female. Surely they’re the ones for whom the national theatre is obliged to produce plays – poorly written or otherwise. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN McDERMOTT,

Drumcondra,

Dublin 9.