The Weakly Planet printed another letter. Regardless, the editor after having seen the play is siding with Mr. Lieb.

“Self-Righteous Justifications
I wish to offer my opinion of Mark Leib’s self-righteous justifications for his desecration of March of the Kitefliers (Letters, Aug. 17-23).

I was involved with theater for nearly two decades - and no, I have never been involved or affiliated with Jobsite - from the standpoint of both cast and crew. Each time I read a review from a professional reviewer, I’m struck by the dichotomy between their words and Mark’s, as each review Mark writes reminds me more and more of Ionesco’s Professor holding up an empty hand, shrilly shrieking “Knife! Knife! Knife!” as he stabs at his student. With his latest review of Jobsite’s production of a wonderful and unique play, he seeks to kill that which he did not - and could not - create, and couches his lukewarm apologies for spoiling the theatergoers’ experience in high-flown language, showing his purported moral and literary superiority.

That Mark chose to reveal a rather critical plot point indicates not that he “could not write a coherent review of the play” without destroying one of the highlights of the production, but that he felt a sense of entitlement to act as he so chose, willfully disregarding what makes the theater a wonderful experience: its wonder, its majesty, and its mystery.

Mark states that “A play’s assumptions are essential to any critic’s argument; its conclusions are for the spectator alone.” Ironic, then, that he would provide a conclusion based solely on his assumptions of what the reader needed to hear.

Mark found the play “half-inspired, half-formulaic.” His apology is, if you will excuse the vitriol, half-assed.

Jonathan M. Northwood

Portland, Ore.”