LETTERSFrom Dominic Pope, Shanklin:
IN response to Charlotte Hofton’s column 'Our responses need a dose of common sense’ (CP, 13-01-12).
I agree, Charlotte, they do, and also a certain amount of factual accuracy, which was sadly missing from your article attacking the pantomime at Shanklin Theatre.
I am the writer and director of the show and I also played the character of Buttons who made the 'pathetic’ joke that received a complaint from Mr Giles.
If only Charlotte had bothered reading last week’s letters page in support of the show, she may have seen his quote was inaccurate and he had got the audiences’ reaction wrong — not only did the joke get one of the biggest laughs of the show at every performance but it also got a round of applause on several occasions, at no time did the 'grown-ups not laugh, making it a flop all round’.
What this means is Charlotte Hofton didn’t even see the show that she viciously attacked. If someone inaccurately quoted a sentence from her column out of context would I be reasonable in judging her skills as a journalist? Of course not.
As everybody knows a joke isn’t just about the words it is about timing, delivery and context. If you didn’t see it performed you have no right to comment on it or how the audience reacted to it.
The joke was a quick aside for the adults during a two-and-a-half-hour family show that 4,500 people attended and enjoyed. I certainly didn’t mean it to cause offence as I believe the joke went over the children’s heads.
We feel saddened that no-one involved with the pantomime was contacted by Mrs Hofton to give our point of view, we are a small Island company giving Islanders jobs in the arts, providing stage schools for children and we are also the major hirer of Shanklin Theatre, which is being kept alive by dedicated hard-working volunteers.
Yet she attacked us with only the tiniest piece of information. Did her response have a dose of common sense, no, it had none.