FORTUNATE to witness Felicity Kendal's tour de force performance in Sir Peter Hall's revival of David Hare's mother-daughter drama Amy's View last night. A spellbinding evening at the Garrick Theatre made up for a frustrating afternoon largely spent seeking Michael Cregan.

Michael who? Well, exactly. Cregan, as the old joke goes, isn't a household name in his own household. But this year he's in charge of organising the Olivier Awards taking place next month. This is no laughing matter.

Normally award nominations- much like any other piece of significant arts news- are announced over the course of the day. But for some reason the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) decided to bypass London newspapers and "embargo" the story by giving it to the national newspapers first. This meant that people who live in, say, the Scottish Highlands, learnt earlier about the Olivier awards which honour London theatre than readers of the capital's newspapers. You might have gathered that I feel strongly about this but theatre producers and PR's have also been in touch to say it is an unacceptable state of affairs.

Mr Cregan- probably more than a tad embarrassed by the notion that he was doing the capital an incredible disservice with his suppression policy- would not return my calls. It often happens that superannuated lackeys are harder to reach than Chief Executives.

So it proved in Mr Cregan's case. Having left countless messages, I eventually got his direct line by combing through the SOLT's Annual Report and telephoned him seeking an explanation.

Initially Mr Cregan claimed he couldn't speak to me, referring me to the PR agency that handles the event. Then he said that the decision to delay the announcement until the evening had been taken so SOLT could break the news on its own website. (Is SOLT's internet supremo a fully-paid-up vampire who only operates at night?)

I pointed out that the Oscars and the Baftas seem to do OK by releasing their nominations normally during the day. He told me that he didn't know about them. It's no surprise that there is a vacancy on SOLT's website for an Awards Co-ordinator. Let's hope they fill it by next month.

I was reminded of what Hamlet says of Polonius: 'Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in's own house.' Which is worse- Mr Cregan or the society that has created him? I was pondering this question until Amy's View took my mind away from the matter. Exit the world of an insignificant minion inexplicably wielding West End clout. Enter the world of those genuine theatrical big-hitters Felicity Kendal, David Hare and Sir Peter Hall.

But it was a shame that rather spend the afternoon seeking out the new Damien Hirst or Zadie Smith, I had to chase up someone from the Society of London Theatre whose rightful home is in the Society of London Clowns.