The problem with reviews and why Oscar Wilde was wrong.

Oscar Wilde was wrong when he famously said, 'We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.' I would argue that when it comes to reviews, all of us are looking at the stars. 


At last years 'Devoted and Disgruntled' Conference in Brighton, one of the break off groups discussed how we engage audiences in conversations about theatre and warned of the dangers of the English reliance on the star system within our reviews. A particularly astute German dramaturg amongst us complained that English theatre reviews were far too simplistic. 'You can't talk about the lighting or the sound in 500 words and how can you go to the theatre and not talk about the lighting?!'.

Anti - intellectualism runs rife throughout our culture. Despite or perhaps because of the scope of the English Vocabulary we value simplicity and straight talking; nevermind what you think it's about, is it any good or not? As a lecturer I have observed my students reluctance to talk about theatre other than in terms of what they like or don't like for fear of sounding pretentious. So it makes sense that we love stars, as there is no more simplistic measurement of critique than the star system. If it's 5 stars we will instantly buy a ticket, 4 stars probably, 3 stars and we won't even register it and let us not speak about 2 or 1 star reviews for they can only speak of shame.

When reviewing I have struggled with the star system. Sometimes it has felt inflexible, often subjective and sometimes downright irrelevant. I have found the demand for stars stifling, I am aware the review sites are trying to reduce the amount of four/five star reviews so that they hold their value, which explains why I was once told that my review did not match it's four star verdict so they changed to 3 stars instead. However this categorisation not only over simplifies the value of art, it also stops us from talking about art, prevents new discoveries and blocks innovation. Many times I haven't liked something but that doesn't mean that there is no value in it. On this blog, I don't have to provide stars, I don't even have to stick to a word limit, although I do try. So I will continue to review on here without stars, often in the darkness but still attempting to shine a light.