Shakespeare loses nothing in modern dress

SIR – Stuart Norman, who dislikes “trendy” adaptations of Shakespeare (Letters, July 16), does not speak for this “mature theatregoer”.

I am neither patronised nor offended by the occasional modernworld Shakespeare production, nor is my imagination reduced, providing the director’s motive is solely to enhance understanding and enjoyment of the play, not exclusively for the young but for all audiences.

Modernisation for its own sake and to be trendy can be spotted at once and is offensive. But if the director’s integrity sees to it that the essence of all aspects of the play is neither diminished nor warped, and if the words remain unaltered, then Ben Jonson’s well-known view is compounded: that Shakespeare was so psychologically sound that he was “not of an age but for all time”. Let us revel in Elizabethan productions, but not allow all the plays to be fossilised exclusively into that one century. Merry Rushton

Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire

SIR – Mr Norman is right to lament the tendency to “modernise” Shakespeare in an attempt to please younger audiences.

Contemporary costume, however, is nothing new, since Shakespeare, whose plays encompass a range of times and settings, made no attempt at historical realism.

Indeed, in Henry V, the Prologue asks the Globe audience to “piece out our imperfections with your thoughts”. Christopher Pelly

Parkstone, Dorset