1964–1975: Revolution On and Off Stage

restraint of verbal expression ceased; instead of being a necessity, it became a handicap to a player to have a standard English accent; the commercial theatre, hitherto the mainstay of the drama, wilted because many dramatists first offered their plays to the National Theatre, and much of the middle-class public began to stay away from the playhouse because they missed the old, comfortable, reassuring, nicely spoken, well dressed entertainments they had been accustomed to see.

(Hobson 1984, 200)