HAD the Wiltshire Times been able to attend John of Gaunt's excellent GCSE and A-level drama presentation last week, I feel sure that you would have redressed the balance of your sensational front page headline of March 15 edition ("Audience shocked by vile drama") by writing one more appropriate (could I suggest "Shakers who stirred ")?

Your headline referred to the Year 13 John of Gaunt A-level drama production entitled Shakers, which, incidentally, was written by a professional playwright, and not by the students who performed it (as stated in your article).

In a sequence of humorous and sometimes poignant glimpses into the working of the characters portrayed, Shakers tells the story of four waitresses employed in a trendy cocktail bar.

How many times have we all stood impatiently waiting for the food or drinks we have ordered, without paying much thought to the reality of the lives of the people employed to serve it to us?

Shakers said it all it was a wonderful piece of acting by talented young drama students.

The 'foul' language your article commented on was largely contained in the suggestive names of the cocktails (which were no different to the names of drinks on menus and specials boards up and down the country, and certainly no worse than the language on 'after the watershed' television).

John of Gaunt's drama and music departments will be teaming up for a production of Return to the Forbidden Planet later this year. Let's hope the Wiltshire Times can be present to ensure 'fair press' to what promises to be yet another wonderful, professional production.

S LUPTON,

Oakfield Road,

Frome.

Thank goodness I went to see Shakespeare's Greatest Bits before reading your reviewer's damning diatribe.

Recently, after years of trying, I finally got my girlfriend to see Romeo & Juliet, which she adored.

This was thanks largely to a painless (but none-the-less resisted) introduction to Shakespeare via the wonderful (doubtless slated by your reviewer) Shakespeare in Love.

My 14-year-old son is presently and stubbornly refusing to read Macbeth (as I did at his age).

If only more theatre companies were willing to follow the example of the excellent Bath Theatre Royal's Company and be a little more risqu and a little less precious, our beloved Bard might become better read, more accessible and less elitist (but that wouldn't do, would it?).

Mike Bell,

The Retreat,

Frome.

Reviews are, by their very essence, a personal view, although we do strive to be fair at all times. Bard novices might wish to read Erik Garfield's review of The Tobacco Factory's production of Twelfth Night on page 49 this week. Editor.