ONE STAR

27 June 2026

My relationship with critics is ambivalent. I have been a critic. I have written to newspaper editors asking them to remove critics. I have turned to critics to make decisions about whether to see a film or a show or read a book. But I’ve never had to bear the personal consequence of being the recipient of a review….unless you count grades for essays.

Reviewing on Radio, 1980s

I know actors who don’t read reviews. I know actors who hang on every word of a reviewer. When I was a reviewer, it was for theatre on a community radio station. My approach was to be accurate but witty, truthful but not unkind. If a show was really terrible, I didn’t review it. That way, I wasn’t drawing attention to it. It was in the days when a review, particularly in a major daily newspaper had a serious impact on audience numbers. Now, the world has changed. Everyone has an opinion and everyone can express it on line. This can mean that one bad review doesn’t ruin a show but it also means that there’s no long a thoughtful analysis of all elements of the production that remains as a public record of an ephemeral art form.

In the days when reviewers had more power, there was one theatre critic writing for the Australian Financial Review who clearly hated everything that the then Artistic Director of Melbourne Theatre Company, Simon Philips, directed. Each review was inaccurate and unfair. I wrote to his editor pointing out the differences between his reviews and reviewers from The Age and the Australian. He didn’t bother to reply but the reviewer disappeared off the scene shortly afterwards. I wasn’t trying to stop the reviewer having an opinion but just wanting him to either admit his prejudice or bring more critical skills to his writing.

During the time I worked at MTC, I never expressed a public opinion about a show, ours or anyone else’s. My view was always going to be seen as the Company’s position on a show. These days, I can say what I think out loud but the only public reviews I do are of films on Letterboxd. A film has already been made. The actors and creatives have moved on to another project. My opinion doesn’t matter unlike a life performance where performers have to go on stage night after night with both praise and hurt ringing in their heads.

What made me thing about this topic was reading Charlotte Runcie’s engaging book Bring the House Down. It’s about the impact of a one star review on an Edinburgh Fringe show. It’s also about reviewing, journalism, gender politics, relationships and motherhood and art:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jun/20/bring-the-house-down-by-charlotte-runcie-review-the-joy-of-the-hatchet-job

 The New York Times only gives it 3 stars but I’ll give it 4. It’s insightful about the role of the critic – both providing feedback to the performer and advice to the potential audience member – as well as creating some fascinating characters in the world of theatre and journalism.