I am responding to the letter by Jo Shaw, (Letters, May 16) entitled - I think rather unfairly - "Treasonous rip-off".

The Treason Show has been performed at Komedia every month since June 2000 and, as you would expect from a topical, news-based satire show, is entirely dependent on what is in the news the month before each show - with some months offering a wider spread of news than others.

While Ms Shaw is entirely justified to her opinions on the material used in the show, I would like to make a couple of points in response.

Her main complaint appears to be about material which she has seen in previous performances.

All material in The Treason Show is topical, therefore an issue which was covered in, say, 2002 (for example, the fact cyclists in Brighton are constantly overlooked) which continues to make the news in 2005, is worthy for inclusion in a show.

In fact, there was very little else except the topic of Brighton cyclists on the letters pages of The Argus for several days recently.

And in a show of 41 sketches, only four had been performed before and even then in different versions - the items covered were The Brighton Festival, Star Wars, cyclists and open houses - all of which were topical this month.

A stand-up comedian can perform exactly the same routine for years.

Ms Shaw also complains some of our regular characters are portrayed in the same way each month but this is the way sketch shows tend to work.

Regular characters are the backbone of sketch shows - audiences expect them to be done in a certain way. Shows such as Bremner, Bird & Fortune, Dead Ringers and even more generic shows, such as Little Britain all have regular characters their audiences know and love - The Treason Show is no different.

Perhaps the question which we should ask is, isn't it a bad thing our city, the country in general and the people in the public eye have changed so little in five years these issues are still relevant?

On a more personal note, the fact members of the cast appeared tired to Ms Shaw is possibly something to do with the fact half of them were suffering from flu - imagine how cross Ms Shaw would have been had the show been cancelled.

However, in spite of all this, The Treason Show has been running monthly for five years and regularly sells out - so we can't be doing that much wrong.

-Carol Kentish, The Treason Show