A critic leaves no turn unstoned
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday July 13, 2009
THE most important thing to remember when you get a rotten review is that you are in very select company.I have a slim volume titled Rotten Reviews, vitriol directed at illustrious literary targets, often by other literary giants; Voltaire, for instance, skewering Hamlet as "the work of a drunken savage"; or Madame de Stael likening Voltaire to a demon or ape "laughing at the misery of the human race, with which he has nothing in common". Or George Bernard Shaw crucifying Shakespeare, finding Othello "pure melodrama", Antony And Cleopatra full of "bogus characterisation", and the language in Julius Caesar "worthy of a Tammany boss".In 1891 the Daily Telegram in London compared Ibsen's Ghosts to "a dirty act done publicly". More stylishly, the American critic Robert Garland, after enduring Chekov, mused: "If you were to ask me what Uncle Vanya is about, I would say about as much as I can take."So I reached for Rotten Reviews when the Herald printed a thoroughly rotten review of my play Unit 46. After a few venomous paragraphs, the critic, Jason Blake, concluded that Unit 46 was "overwritten at best, misogynistic ... at worst". Gulp! Other reviewers have raved. Ten years ago the Herald found it "a neatly contrived, droll play".Visions of revenge racked me: a young Rachel Ward flinging red wine over the Herald critic Bob Evans, Harry Kippax being lambasted in the Wharf Theatre's foyer. But wait. Wiser counsel prevails. From Kurt Vonnegut: a reviewer "is like a person who has just put on full armour and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split." E.M. Forster: "No author is entitled to whine. He was not obliged to be an author."And from Rotten Reviews: "They are a poor lot indeed, ill-paid, despised all around, and often wrong, but they have their pride." I can relate to that. I once was a critic.I could easily have become depressed by the poisonous three-paragraph review that dismissed my play. But then I remembered that the same Blake only a day earlier had found "dull writing" in Shakespeare's Pericles, in a production where "scenes fall flat, serious moments elicit giggles". Perhaps Blake could use a holiday to sort out his melancholia. I'm sure all theatre people wish him a speedy recovery.Readers are invited to send 450 words on what makes their blood boil to heckler@smh.com.au. Include your daytime phone details.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
