“ATTACKED FROM EVERY SIDE”

THE SEAGULL
presented by Company B Belvoir, June 2011

I have always maintained that the most cogent critiques about art come via the art itself – a theory which may explain why (unfortunately) few stage practitioners will bother to engage in the essay style short-form criticism that makes up the majority of theatre comment on the interwebs and occasional news broadsheet. A mere thousand words is inadequate when one’s ideas about the form reflect a full complement of overt and internalised sensibilities that can only truly be expressed in the unique metaphorical context of live performance. Critics will invariably cast their aspersions or approvals on the various aesthetic or cultural merits of any given work but these comments are secondary to the actual creative conversation happening between artists at all levels who seek to change or improve the conventions of theatre. That is the real battleground; between the traditional and the experimental forms of theatrical language. Everything else is academic.

critic watch: THE ALBATROSS

Sometimes, however, there is a piece of criticism so trite, so weak and blurry, so bland that in order to find clarity again I must pour droplets of soy into my eyes, to fend off the seeping mediocrity attacking my brain.