Reviews (and reviewers) in the news….

It’s a sport I used to indulge in myself on this blog, but I abandoned it a while ago since it just became too dull and repetitive to continue with (and obligated me to read the column, which I’d prefer not to). The cause was taken up instead by my colleague Ian Shuttleworth, whose Theatre Record collects and re-prints the national reviews, and usefully makes a permanent record of the ephemera of news print. (That’s true even in the internet age, since the Telegraph, perhaps wisely, does not post Walker’s reviews online).

Walker has since retaliated with a series of personal attacks that revolve around attacks on representations of overweight people in the theatre, whether onstage (in Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song) or sitting behind him in the theatre (when he saw Pains of Youth at the National). That has been clearly inspired by the fact, as Private Eye notes, that “it is no coincidence that both Shuttleworth and Shenton are generously built”.

I’ve never been shy of the fact myself, though as anyone who has seen me in recent months may have noted, I’m becoming less generously built than before. But it’s not really relevant to my work, or to that of Ian; whereas the ability of a critic to know his Iago from his Othello might be.

At least no theatrical management has yet been tempted to quote some of Walker’s more extraordinary declarations outside of their theatres, like the fact that he thinks that Ronald Harwood is our greatest living playwright or Patrick Garland the best director of plays in Britain.

But critics have also been making the news yesterday for the misquoting of other reviews front-of-house. According to a story in yesterday’s Evening Standard, Westminster Trading Standards are investigating whether the current stage version of The Shawshank Redemption (which actually closes prematurely at Wyndham’s this weekend) broke consumer protection legislation by using a misleading quote to trumpet the success of their production.

According to the story, the Daily Telegraph is quoted as declaring it “a superbly gripping, genuinely uplifting prison drama”; but the phrase, taken from Charles Spencer’s Daily Telegraph notice, actually referred to the 1994 film version. Charlie duly went on to say in his review, “When money is tight, people are more likely to buy tickets for something they already know and love than take a risk on something that might prove a disappointment. In this case, however, I would suggest that your cash might be better spent elsewhere. The DVD is being sold for just £2.98 on Amazon, and yesterday a Sunday newspaper was giving it away. In the West End, by contrast, you will have to pay £49.50 for a top-price ticket - though there are seats in the gods going for a tenner. In almost every respect, however, the stage version is inferior to the movie.”

Sue Jones, Trading Standards operations manager, comments in the Standard, “It is not acceptable for any theatre to mislead the public. We will be contacting the theatre and asking for an explanation. If we are not satisfied we will not hesitate to take further action.”

But in a story in today’s Independent, Charlie gets the last word: “I’m delighted that The Shawshank Redemption is shutting up shop. It was nothing like as powerful or moving as the film [and] I have another reason for wishing it ill, and that is the dishonesty of its advertising.”

I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing the Arcola quoting Charlie anytime soon in its attempts to lure theatregoers to visit Dalston, but at least you can’t accuse him of dishonesty: he’s open in his dislike of the place. Reviewing its new production of The Line that opened there on Monday, he begins his review by stating, “Reviewers should be honest about their prejudices and one of mine is a great dislike for the Arcola Theatre in darkest Dalston. It’s a nightmare to get to, and when you finally arrive in the neighbourhood you find yourself on a menacing main street, often patrolled by terrifying hooded youths, and with shops that seem to consist entirely of cut-price supermarkets, kebab establishments and, rather bizarrely, gentlemen’s hairdressers. A colleague had his pocket picked and his wallet removed on his way to The Line and seemed to regard it as par for the course. The foyer is warm and welcoming but the auditorium is cramped and stuffy with a claustrophobically low ceiling. It was once a garment-trade sweatshop. Now it’s a sweatshop for out-of-sorts theatre critics.”

We all, of course, have to speak as we find; and going to the Arcola usually puts a spring in my step personally (and not just because it has the best kebab joint in town, diagonally across the street from the theatre). I’ve written here previously of how I go to the Arcola or the Lyric Hammersmith “with genuine anticipation and expectation”, whereas “I am usually depressed nowadays by the prospect of visiting Hampstead Theatre”. As I wrote, “That’s because the Arcola has managed to build my trust in the last few years that my time there is usually going to be well rewarded - whereas at Hampstead my hopes for that outcome have been serially eroded. The Arcola may not be the easiest theatre to travel to, but it is always a pleasure to arrive; the reverse feels true at Hampstead.”

Mind you, that sense of trepidation at Hampstead is also shared by Charlie. When he reviewed Hampstead’s revival of The Fastest Clock in the Universe in September, Charlie wrote, “After six often wretched years that have seen Hampstead produce more dud new plays than seems humanly possible, Anthony Clark is finally quitting as artistic director in December. It will probably be a relief to him. It will certainly be a relief to many in his long-suffering audience.”

Theatrical fashion and fortune is a constantly changeable beast, though, so maybe we’ll look forward to going to Hampstead again in due course. Meanwhile, though, the theatre of the moment seems to be the Royal Court, which this week saw it securing wins in four out of the eight categories of this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards (for Best Actor, Best Play, Best Director and Most Promising Playwright), whereas the National was barely mentioned, not even in nominations. The Royal Court duly issued a press release on Tuesday trumpeting its successes - and offered a press statement from its artistic director, one Dominic Cavendish. Only he is the deputy theatre critic of the Daily Telegraph. Nine minutes later, an amended release was duly issued with Cavendish corrected to Cook.

Personally, I am now looking forward to Fiona Maddocks directing ENO’s new production of Elegy For Young Lovers at the Young Vic next April instead of Shaw; Nicholas de Jongh running the National instead of Nick Hytner; Michael Billington running the Donmar Warehouse instead of Michael Grandage and Alastair Macaulay returning from New York to run Sadler’s Wells instead of Alistair Spalding.