As Catherine Love and Andrew Haydon continue their good cop, bad cop relationship with the critic prodigies, they have furnished us with yet another slew of guidelines and things to take into account. Although, this time I have to say I was completely enamoured with the Charles Spencer’s piece on why it’s not a critic’s job to be nice. Having read the piece, which I reproduce in its entirety below, I felt that it was something that resonated with my own approach.
Category Articles
The Seven Sweet Virtues Of Drama Criticism
This is a riposte to the earlier guide of theatre criticism – The Seven Deadly Sins – which it seems is just about breaking every rule we were told not to break. Who’d be a critic eh?
The Seven Deadly Sins Of Drama Criticism
If I thought this critiquing lark was just a lot of hacks pretending they liked the sound of their own voice (on paper at least) then one of our mentors, Andrew Haydon, decided to dispel my preconceived notions.
Everyone’s A Critic?
The paper clip.
The humble paper clip is perhaps the ultimate in design. I’d go as far as saying it is the ultimate in art. Functional. Simplistic. Futuristic. The clean lines in design. The way it has the ability to bring things together. Instantly recognisable. I’d go as far and say it is a thing of beauty.