Excellence Outside London / National Critics - Do we need them?

Excellence Outside London / National Critics - Do we need them?

Sue McCormick, 9 August 2012

Ian Forrest and Sue McCormick combined their sessions as the questions raised sprang from the same sense of geographical bias.
Ian began by describing Theatre by the Lake's inability to attract even one national critic to a brand new play by an established playwright which is part of the season this year.

It was widely felt that this is only one example of the London-centric attitude which theatre in the North West suffers from, leading to lack of critical coverage for the large amount of excellent work that is done outside the capital.

We discussed if national reviews really make a difference to the success of a show and concluded that from a bums on seats point of view, word of mouth is usually more effective than any review which is actually more important to the cast and creatives of the show than to the reading public. Nevertheless, those involved deserve the same recognition and validation as that given to shows and companies in London and are denied it because of geographical snobbery.
It was suggested that TBTL and others should challenge the BBC on their regional arts coverage in the context of their diversity policy. The printed media may not have similar policies but reviews editors could be challenged on their selection process and pressed to cover theatre throughout the country and not just on their doorstep.

Tags:

reviews, geographical bias, critic, London-centric, snobbery, Reviews