SHORT TAKES : U.S. Theater Superficial--Miller

Playwright Arthur Miller, in London for rehearsals of his play “The Price,” which opens next month, accused U.S. theater of being superficial.

Contrasting unsubsidized theater in the United States with the state-aided British theater, Miller said Wednesday that American theater has often degenerated into a search for titillating ways to fill unsubsidized and expensive seats.

“Theaters in the States are finding it very difficult to continue because they feel they have got to constantly excite audiences in a most superficial way,” the 74-year-old playwright told reporters.

Speaking during a break in rehearsals for “The Price” at the Young Vic theater, he said standards in British theater could fall if subsidies were reduced or stopped.

The issue is a hot topic in Britain, where Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government is accused by critics of starving state-aided theaters and other arts of sufficient public funding. Her Conservative government favors funding of the arts by private business sponsorship.