Sir, Suffice it to say that Mr Penton Jones's depressingly literal objections to my production of A Woman of No Importance at the Abbey represent much of what the Irish theatre has spent the last 25 years trying to get away from. His point of interpretation, however, is worth taking issue with.
He says. "Lord Illingworth's incessant wrapping of his arms around Gerald Arbuthnot indicated a homosexual interest. I looked for a subtle change in his attitude when he discovered that the young man was his son. If it was there, it was so subtle that I missed it." If Mr Penton Jones had paid closer attention to the moral depth charges being sounded in the first act, he might allow that Lord Illingworth's rampant hedonism and his new found paternal feelings are not mutually exclusive.
If this is too subtle for him, he might care to consider Lytton Strachey's famous precise of the play's plot. "A wicked Lord staying in a country house makes up his mind to bugger one of the other guests, a handsome young man of twenty. The handsome young man is delighted his mother enters, sees his Lordship and recognises him as having copulated with her twenty years before, the result of which was the handsome young man. She appeals to Lord Illingworth not to bugger his own son. He replies that that's an additional reason for doing it (oh, he's a very wicked Lord). The audience was of course charmed." Yours etc Killincarrig Road, Greystones, Co. Wicklow.