SEMINAR Hampstead Theatre, London

Can writing be taught? Are creative writing courses a waste of time? American playwright Theresa Rebeck writes about four aspiring twentysomething writers, who each pay $5,000 to be humiliated by a once famous novelist who runs weekly seminars on creative writing. He makes his judgements after a ridiculously cursory reading of their texts; sometimes not getting past the first sentence. His main purpose, however, is to deliver barbed put-you-downs in as rude a manner as possible and Roger Allam, who plays him, does just that. I sat there, pretty bored, wondering what rude things the characters in the play would have said about Rebeck’s play if they had been asked to criticize it.