Give Pope a call.

* SIR - Armed with our tickets for the show Cappuccino Girls in Swansea High Street, we left for a nice day out. On arrival we sought out a nice coffee shop for some light refreshments and suitably replete we set off for a look around the city centre.

We continued our tour of the shops before taking our rather full bags of purchases back to the car before choosing a venue for an early supper and then on to the "theatre".

I use that word lightly as the company had obviously taken over a half completed property development to stage their production. Enjoying some more refreshments in the mock "coffee shop" we got chatting to a couple who had also made a day out of it like us, from Pembroke and also were joined on our table by a lovely lady and her daughter from Llanelli.

The atmosphere was expectant and the show did not disappoint, what a splendid piece of musical theatre! Not only was it beautifully sung and acted, the intimacy of the staging really added greatly to the show, you really felt you were eavesdropping on the next table and the script with its twists and turns kept us riveted until the finale.

Our whole day was a great success and on our way back I got thinking about other town or city centres with empty large buildings or shops, that could possibly do with some extra footfall or some quirky marketing.

If I were a civic leader or an economic regenerator in Newport, Pontypool, Wrexham etc then I think I would be looking through the phone book for Mal Pope's telephone number. The whole experience was marvellous and at pounds 13 per ticket (pre-booked) represented an opportunity to see professional musical theatre at very reasonable rates.

I would add that I am not connected to the show in any way.

I wonder if this is an idea that could be adopted to be a welcome boost to some of the shopping centres that just could do with a helping hand in these challenging times.

JOHN BANNON Abergavenny