Today
For Shame
What kind of theatre critic has to remind themselves to be open to experiment? What kind of critic is so unaware of how ludicrous this is that they don’t even keep it to themselves? This kind of critic, that’s who.
It’s a hilarious list. He admits to having seen only three movies. Fair enough, he regrets this. But then he pompously adds, ‘I feel particularly ignorant about recent non-Hollywood cinema, especially the exciting work coming out of Iran’. No chum, you’re ignorant about all cinema: you’ve seen three films in a year.
He then successively admits to having seen few art shows, modern dance, and modern fiction. He trots out the nonsensical cliche that you can’t understand Chekhov’s plays without reading his short stories (why?). continue reading … »
posted 6 January 2008 @ 18:02 by theatre worker » One Comment
Previously on Encore...
Deja Vu
Two years ago, Howard Davies directed a rather poor production of The House of Bernarda Alba. It was marred by a wholly misjudged version by David Hare, a monumental set that turned the mercurial passions of the play into stolid architecture, and a central performance that played for laughs and thus turned Bernarda Alba, one […]
4 August 2007 » read » One Comment
Previously on Encore...
Rise Rise, Ye Upper-Middle Classes!
On the face of it, Dominic Cooke’s determination to make the Royal Court more middle class could not be sillier. You might as well recommend that the sea be made wetter. And those who think this will be a big change need to remind themselves of such shows as Forty Winks, Dumb Show, Drunk Enough […]
