On Stage: Play gives theatre the punch it needs

Sometimes, when days are bleak and the nights too long, I promise myself it is time to stop going to the theatre. The local industry is too fragile, small, and sensitive to take an honest, hard blow on the chin. Criticism comes wrapped in tear-stained tissues.Besides, how can you pan a play in a harsh, cold climate where too many actors struggle, where blase audiences have a smorgasbord of other, perhaps cheaper, distractions from which to choose? Hard times, as Charles Dickens would say.