WHAT a pity that the excellent production of Camille by the Lyric on Tour was so scornfully reviewed in the Malvern Gazette (May 9). Malvern is fortunate to have theatre of this calibre on its doorstep.

But the reviewer appears to have completely misunderstood what the story - incidentally based on a true story - is about. It is not a wearisome tale in which a prostitute finds and loses true love.

The central character, Marguerite, comes to be seen as a person of genuine nobility of character, capable of sacrificing her happiness and indeed her life for an 18-year-old girl she has never met and who would, through her sacrifice, be enabled to enjoy all the things most consistently denied her: respectable marriage, children, status in society, economic stability.

The audience on the night we were there appreciated the force of the tragedy of her death and Armand's loss in rapt silence.

DR BRENDA WATSON, Croft Bank, West Malvern.