Village Squire, 1976-07, Page 31Theatre
The power of the critic: is it abused?
BY KEITH ROULSTON
In the basement of the barn home of the
Huron Country Playhouse Herb Whittacker,
one of the most restricted theatrical critics in
Canada was talking about the role of critics. •
As'a retired critic, he could talk a little more
unbiasedly than those involved in the
profession day to day. He talked in a gentle
humourous way about the art of being a critic
and the problems involved. He recalled his
first critique when he had hacked an amateur
production to shreds. Luckily, he said, he had
an editor who convinced him he was using a
hammer to crack a peanut and he went back
and softened the review, but kept the original
copy. Looking back in later years, he said, he
saw in that review the attempt to impress
people with how much he knew about theatre
and how well he could write, not a true story
on the production he had reviewed. Many
critics, especially young ones trying to make
an impression do the same things today, he
said.
His point was proven. the next morning.
Doug Bale main theatre critic for the London
Free Press had not been at that press dinner
because he'd covered the preview of the
Playhouse's opening production so his review
could appear in the Thursday morning paper.
Yet his review could not have been a better
example of what Whittacker had been talking
about. It was a stinging attack on the play
(You're a Good Man Charlie Brown) and
everyond involved, from the set designer to
the actors, nearly everyone but the ticket
takers. It showed the classic kind of
reviewer's sarcasm that shows that in his
• opinion, the actors may not be able to act, nor
the director, direct, but by George, the critic
sure can write. At one point he said one of the
young actresses should be told that walking
like her knees had been welded straight and
talking like her tonsils had been removed with
a pair of pliers wasn't the only way'to portray
a little girl.
Mr. Bale, of course may be a pirahna, but
he's still a relatively small fish in the pond. In
Toronto, meanwhile, theatre people were
banding together to demand the replacement
of sharp-tongued John Fraser, of the Globe
and Mail (Whittacker's replacement) and
Gina Mallett of the Daily Star. Both had been
sour ori just about everything that moved on
stage in the past six months with the
exception of a few euphoric trips by Fraser to
the Shaw and Stratford Festivals where the
heady country air seemed to change his whole
prospective from deploring to adoring (at
least of Kate Reid and Maggie Smith).
The role of the critic is an important one in
theatre, in movies and in art and books
(despite what those ravished by critics will
say about it not mattering). In Toronto theatre
circles many people will say that it doesn't
matter whether you get a good or a bad
review, what matters is that you get
reviewed. As Mr. Whittacker pointed out in
his Grand Bend address, critics help build an
audience for whatever it is they're covering.
The more people interested in say theatre,
the more people will buy a paper to read
about it, the more clout the critic will have at
pay negotiating time.
Thus, he said, it's in everybody's best
interest not to turn off people so much in a
review that they don't go to theatre at all.
After all, he points out, the critic is only one
person, even if a well-informed person, and
while he may not like a play or a book or
whatever, others may enjoy it immensely.
And, he added, since art is a very personal
thing it may depend on your own mood when
you go to a play how much you like it, not just
nn how good the play is
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