Hack "Time" reporter

Sir—Derek Metser's review of "The Promise" reads like the work of a hack "Time" reporter. There is hardly a paragraph in his review which bears any relation to the excellent performance which I saw on the opening night.

Mr. Melser starts by stating that the play is set "somewhat arbitrarily in Leningrad". The characters in the play are firmly rooted in the Russian society which existed during and after World War II. What place symbolises the Russian resistance and despair better than Leningrad? Mr. Melser might as well criticise Shakespeare for setting "Romeo and Juliet' "somewhat arbitrarily" in Verona.

He then goes on to dismiss the plot as "too sentimental corny and hollow for even the most willing of the audience to suspend their disbelief. Whatever the merits of the play, and they are by no means as slight as Mr. Melser would have us believe, the audience's total involvement in the dramatic conflcit was born witness to at the end of the play by prolonged applause and repeated curtain calls.

Perhaps during the play Mr. Melser was so involved in constructing his facile comments that the audiences reaction was, in fact like the play, overlooked.

Mainly I would take issue with this critic's dismissal of the standard of acting in the production. He says "perhaps an experienced company could have brought some style, if not pointfulness to such a hapless script". (I'm afraid I can only shudder at this vulgar attempt to coin a word.)

Having seen the play performed in London I expected to be disaopointed, but the deep sincerity—and total absorption of these actors in their roles, created a high level of tension which would have done credit to an experienced and professional company. Though the play is undoubtedly sentimental and the character of Lika not fully enough developed, John Hopkins, Bill Evans and Margaret Brew transcended these faults and make the production one of the Drama Club's best.