Sir, Having served my own apprenticeship as a critic (admittedly, of books and exhibitions rather than plays), I have been trying to reconcile David Nowlan's two reviews of A Woman of No Importance (Patrick Mason, the Gate, Irish Times July 26th 1984, and Ben Bames, the Abbey, Irish Times June 13th 1996). Perhaps one may gain some insights not only into the play but into the development of your critic. (I assume he did not review the 1950 Gate production)
In 1984 the play "could be accused of being melodramatic and sentimental, but in a most rare, most elegant and most welcome professional production, it provided a most diverting evening of theatre". In 1996, the play, formerly only accused, is now condemned "An ill constructed, melodrama of glib romanticism while the production, "faithful to both the text and the theatrical constructs of its period, does little to invest it with dramatic life". (That the play contains painfully melodramatic moments is undeniable but it is not quite right to call the play a melodrama sans phrase.) Kate Flynn, as Mrs Arbuthnot in 1984, was "a rock of moral certainty", Catherine Byrne in the same role only "made her commitment as seriously and as effectively as the construct would allow". Joe Vanek designed both sets 1984 "an expensive and most elegant joy", in 1996 only "as impersonal and unplaced as the play".
I cannot see that we are simply looking at the different styles of Mason and Barnes here some where, David Nowlan's criteria have altered. Which is the their vision? The younger or older self? A clue would the David Nowlan of 1984 have used the phase "arse over tip" or referred to Lady Caroline Pontefract as a "cockpecker". This seems to indicate a coarsening of your critic's sensibilities.
A small addition to the history of this play Ben Barnes has Philip Judge as Lord Augustus Rufford lying on the ground and smoking so did Philip Prowse in his 1991 production. Reviewing this in the [London] Independent, Irving Wardle twice linked the play to Waiting jar Godot. This on the face of it unlikely connection will re-occur in this year's Oscar Wilde Autumn School when Gerry Dukes will talk on Striking the Iron Before It Freezes The Language of Comedy and the Comedy of Language. Some Reflections on Wilde and Beckett. Yours, etc., Oscar Wilde Summer School, Chamber of Commerce House, Bray, Co. Wicklow.