14 Critical Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 4

ossification. By offering extreme instances of the conventions of presentation which accompany that mode, they draw attention to their artificiality. Noble leads his audience (or those to whom I spoke) to ask whether this is really Shakespeare.

The questions which should be asked, however, are whether any production which aspires to modern relevance is really Shakespeare; whether our conception of the greatness of King b a r - meaning capable of speaking positively to all conditions - is honest; and whether attempts to ventriloquise a modem political stance through the play will inevitably be confused by countervailing implications in the text. It may be that the only way to produce a more definite political theatre (or criticism) is not to interpret King b a r but, as Edward Bond sees, to quarrel with it.

SIMON CURTIS

Belle Vue Zoo & Amusement Park - a threnody

Hollow, concrete whale, redundant now, and beached By what was Children’s Corner, in the snow, Your eye‘s bright still, as I (like Jonah) duck Beneath the lintel of your mouth’s great ‘0’.

Along decrepit avenues I’ve mooched - No grizzly, wombat, parrot, chimpanzee - The zoo’s defunct, its lineaments are blank, Just like the face of some sad OAP.

0 threatened species, cheery eye, old friend, Your number‘s up, you’ve had it, understand? New homes, like lava, now blot out Belle Vue, And trespasser in sold-up Wonderland

I avoid your eye. The north wind, and no thaw. Closer and closer, earth-removers claw.