Item 67 - Letter to Beaton

Typescript letter signed with autograph postscript. Minster thinks it was for the best that the play did not go to London as they would have received "respectful criticism at best". Wolfit's behaviour was irritating and cost them money, and his acting was variable, but the play was unlikely to succeed even with a different actor. There is a limit to how many times a play can be rewritten. They should stop the production at Wolverhampton, and Beaton should write another play as soon as he feels up to it. Beaton has "an undoubted sense of the theatre" and this was a "near miss". It is his first duty as a manager to try to save his backers' money. Is sorry things turned out this way. Postscript: The performance at Brighton went well. They could have had the Westminster Theatre for four weeks but another management got it first. Has just had a talk with Freedman and given him the picture. Ernest Clark and Ann Firbank have other jobs.