'My impression is that commercial British product is very, very white' - Dame Janet Suzman. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Janet Suzman has defended her controversial comment claiming that theatre was a white invention by stating she was simply noting the lack of racial diversity on the West End stage.

Suzman sparked outrage from figures across the arts on Monday when she responded to comments by the actor Meera Syal, calling on the theatre industry to do more to pull in Asian audiences, by saying theatre is a European invention and white people go to it. Its in their DNA. It starts with Shakespeare.

But in a letter published on Wednesday in the Guardian, Suzman responded to condemnation from people such as Booker prize-winning author Ben Okri and writer Stephen Poliakoff who called her views both ill-informed and ridiculous.

What I was referring to was a picture that I have of the West End or commercial London/ and British product, Suzman wrote. My impression is that commercial British product is very, very white.

Suzmans comments on Monday also implied that the repeated stagings of Shakespeare and Greek tragedies were to blame for driving away black and Asian audiences as the work wasnt in their culture until the Asian writers make plays that will appeal, how can one say that?

It was a point she reiterated in her letter, claiming that in her view the formal beginnings of English drama lay in the work of William Shakespeare. She also said that, until more money was invested in getting the work of Asian writers staged, rather than just that of white males, the problems of racial diversity would continue.

When managements start to invest in Asian or black writers, things can start to pop, Suzman said.

However, Suzman also used the letter to re-emphasise her controversial belief that theatre is a pretty white way of spending an evening and expensive.

It was a view that she said was based on her own experiences of recently starring in a play in South Africa alongside a black actor, where she said she had witnessed only one, maybe two, black people turned up in the whole run ... it was completely packed out with white faces.

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Suzman defends comment that theatre was white invention