London's fringe theatre – is it dead already?

guardian.co.uk: Brave is the man who pronounces the London fringe dead. The latest to do so is Steve Bell of Berkley Walk who, in a letter to The Stage late last month, describes fringe theatre as "a tired old joke, a pile of compromises and mediocrity playing to two people a night in a nasty room above or behind a pub." Unsurprisingly, Bell's letter has provoked some response, with several letters of ferocious support making the same pages and, more recently, critics Mark Shenton and Michael Coveney wading into the debate on their personal blogs.