Letter: Misleading claims about RSC director's work

Sir: At the risk of appearing a sourpuss, I must complain about David Lister's obnoxious piece about the first night of Arcadia at the National Theatre (14 April). Recycling untrue gossip published in unworthy journals is a shifty device that deceives nobody and should be eschewed by a newspaper of genuine quality like the Independent. However, creating new gossip based on factual errors is a much more serious felony.

David Lister mischievously claims that I have only done one production for the RSC in the last eight years. Eight years ago, I had not yet directed Les Miserables for the RSC; since then my productions for the company have included The Fair Maid of the West, Othello (in Stratford, London and on television), The Blue Angel - which opened the new Other Place Theatre - and Measure for Measure, revived at the Young Vic in 1992.

The implication that I was not fulfilling my responsibilities as Director Emeritus was altogether misleading, in pursuit of the kind of journalism in which your readers are surely not the least bit interested.

Yours faithfully,

TREVOR NUNN

London, WC2

14 April