Sir, - Aisling Murray (October 20th) is an 18-year-old student who was shocked and disappointed to discover that the play Barbaric Comedies was being staged in our National Theatre.
I am a civil servant and parent of more advanced years, and I am neither shocked nor disappointed at the staging of this play.
My understanding is that Barbaric Comedies is a disturbing exploration of how societal breakdown and the abandonment of moral and ethical codes can result in a descent into barbarity and amorality. There is a view that the extreme images of the play are grounded in strong moral and religious beliefs, and that the intention is to be thought-provoking rather than entertaining.
But then, what would I know? Like Ms. Murray, I haven't seen the play, and I am relying on the commentary of others to inform my opinion. However, I am willing to keep an open mind on the matter.
Whether Barbaric Comedies is exploration or exploitation, it is a fact that we live in a world in which examples of societal breakdown, amorality and barbarity can readily be found. We are free to confront these realities as evil or to accept them as facts of life, but we should not ignore them.
If you cannot challenge the world around you - and be challenged by it - at 18, you will never do it when you get older. Have all the children of the 1980s closed their minds to difficult issues and controversial ideas? Or does it just look that way to this child of the 1960s? - Yours, etc.,
Philip Crosby, Grange Manor Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.