ANY increase in the traffic on the A9 over the next few weeks has to be due, at least in part, to the stream of folk heading to that lovely theatre in the hills, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, where the musical Singin’ in the Rain is playing to large audiences. The talented cast and orchestra produced spontaneous applause with their sparkling performance.

Pitlochry Theatre attracts its share of middle-aged to elderly audiences but, on this occasion, any falling into that grouping left looking at least 10 years younger. Such were the bursts of laughter and the happy smiles on the faces of the audience that it seemed there was almost an argument for tickets to be made available on the NHS.

I could convince myself that some of those who had arrived supported by walking sticks left with them looped over an arm, while others who had arrived limping left with a spring in their step.

It was an outstanding and imaginative production all round. Forget the Prozac;head to Pitlochry while there is still the chance of a ticket for Singin’ in the Rain.

Malcolm Allan,

2 Tofthill Gardens, Bishopbriggs.

RUSSELL Leadbetter’s article on Sybil Thorndike’s visit to Glasgow’s Theatre Royal in 1925 (“Those were the days”, The Herald, December 5) brings to mind another visit she made during the war, with a production of King John. Paisley Theatre was the venue and I was there one Sunday afternoon with my scene-painting father when I witnessed the great Dame, together with her husband Sir Lewis Casson, viewing the stalls from the empty stage and declaiming: “Oh what a beautiful little theatre!”

Little did she know that the locals referred to it as the Bug Hut and when the River Cart, on which it stood, was in spate, the artists’ dressing rooms were unusable due to flooding.

W Raymond Shaw,

(01) 4, Bellwood Street, Glasgow.