Was your theatre critic, Charles Hutchinson, at the same performance of Naked Flame that I attended on Monday?

The audience of about 1,000 laughed more loudly than anything I have heard in 20 years of theatre-going. It was so sustained that the actors had to freeze the action for long periods as they waited for the laughter to subside. At one point the entire audience was so convulsed it looked like a Mexican wave.

Many were clearly in "hen" parties, possibly expecting, like your reviewer, to see a crude piece of exploitation and they certainly cheered whenever flesh was exposed. But within minutes they were shrieking with delight at some of the funniest, sharpest dialogue imaginable.

I find it odd that Mr Hutchinson refers to smutty humour and then spends most of his review straining to make clumsy puns about hoses.

The brilliant finale was a send-up of Chippendale-style shows and was both sexy and hilarious.

Perhaps Mr Hutchinson doesn't think sex is a laughing matter - or maybe he's just not as good at recognising satire as the audience he attempts to patronise.

Mrs S Benson,

Meadowfield Close,

Fitzwilliam,

Pontefract.

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