A diploma’s lovely, love, but a keen eye, a warm seat, and a programme in your hand’ll do just fine.
Well, this one’s caused a bit of a stir in the wings, hasn’t it?
I was trundling down the cobbles with a tote full of flyers and fan mail when I overheard a bit of theatrical muttering online. A performer had posted something along the lines of, “If reviewers haven’t trained in the discipline, how can they possibly review fairly?”
Now, before I pop off like an over-pressurised stage fog machine, let’s have a little sit-down and unpack that.
Because darling, let me tell you: if every reviewer needed a degree from RADA, a ten-year tap certificate, and a Meisner reel under their arm — we’d have no reviews, no feedback, and absolutely no flipping clue what the general audience actually thinks.
You Don’t Need to Bake Bread to Know if It’s Burnt
Theatre, at its core, is made for the audience. Not for examiners. Not for experts. People. People who sit down after a long day, rustle their sweet wrappers too loudly, and want to be transported somewhere magical for a couple of hours.
Reviewers — especially the ones at Theatre Village, if I may be so bold — watch shows not through the eyes of a lighting designer or a vocal coach, but through the eyes of a curious, paying, passionate theatregoer.
We’re looking at the whole cake, love. Not whether the third harmony in the ensemble was on a true B-flat.
Does the story land? Are the performances engaging? Is the choreography clever and cohesive? Did the show do what it promised to do in the programme and the poster, or did it wander off like an unsupervised child in a gift shop?
That’s what we ask ourselves. And we write from the heart. Not the handbook.
“But What If They Don’t ‘Get It’?”
Here’s the kicker: if a reviewer doesn’t understand what you were trying to say, maybe the message wasn’t as clear as you thought.
It’s not about dumbing anything down — heavens no — but if your audience walks out scratching their heads and Googling “symbolic meaning of goat on stilts,” it might not be the reviewers who’ve missed the point.
Reviewers are a bridge between the stage and the stalls. We’re not there to dismantle your craft. We’re there to help audiences find your show — and when it’s brilliant, to shout about it with all the joy of a flashmob finale.
Theatre Village: Honest Opinions, Zero Elitism
Let me be clear: reviewers should always be respectful. Constructive. A little witty, maybe, but never cruel.
But trained? No. That’s not the job.
At Theatre Village, we celebrate performers, creatives, and stories in all their forms — but we also owe our readers honesty. If a show doesn’t land, we’ll say it. Gently. If it soars? We’ll be first in line at the merch stand, tooting your horn from the rooftops.
So let’s not gatekeep who gets to share their thoughts. Theatre is for everyone — and so is theatre criticism.
And if you’re not sure about that… well, you can always pop by and have a natter with me, Grace Hatchell, out on my rounds. I’ll bring the biscuits, you bring the arguments.
All my love,
Grace x
