Criticism | Matt Boothman

Lyn Gardner fully expects to be replaced by Katie Price

1st March 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

The national newspapers' habit of replacing their retired head theatre critics with columnists and political sketchwriters is pretty worrying for those of us on the bottom rungs of the theatre criticism career ladder, as I pointed out in January, when The Times announced Libby Purves would be replacing Benedict Nightingale in their top spot.
Well, it turns out up-and-comers like me aren't the only ones concerned by the trend: some of...

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Excuse me, you’re standing in my dead men’s shoes

28th January 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Theatre reviewing is a dead men's shoes business. One someone lands a chief critic position at a national newspaper, they'll traditionally hold onto that position until they're buried or senile. So for all the deputies and second-stream critics, and for all us up-and-comers watching hawklike for new deputy or second-stream opportunities, the voluntary retirement of two chief critics within a year of one another should have been a cause for...

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Bush Theatre re-opens to unsolicited script submissions

7th December 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

The moment the Bush Theatre axed its script reading team, citing a lack of funds, was the moment the recession became real for me. Beforehand I'd been taking my usual naïve/optimistic view of the situation, confident that it couldn't be as bad as the media made it out to be, and that it would soon blow over with no major consequences. The discontinuation of script reading at one of London's...

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Reviewing the upholstery

11th September 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

I spent a pleasant hour on Wednesday experiencing Theatretank's ÁTMAN, which involved wandering the residential streets and footpaths of south Wimbledon while listening to an abridged audio version of Peter Handke's Self-Accusation.
Theatretank's mp3 player setup was one of the better ones I've come across when investigating audio-assisted productions. The player was small and simple to use and, even better, came with a lanyard, so I could hang it around my...

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Rap Guide star Baba Brinkman rekindles an old debate

13th August 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

"Congratulations on writing the first four star review in history without a single positive adjective! Utterly unquotable, but I do appreciate the stars : )"
Baba Brinkman, commenting on MattBoothman.com
So Baba Brinkman isn't satisfied with four stars, or with the accompanying review - which was, by the way, 50 per cent longer than my editor at the British Theatre Guide recommends for a Festival Fringe review, because I didn't feel I...

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The Ultimate Critics’ Pick of the Fringe – part 3

24th July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Previously: Part 1 | Part 2
So why do critics bother compiling advance Pick of the Fringe Programme lists at all?
The socially acceptable reason is to provide Fringe patrons with navigation points. The programme's Theatre section contains hundreds of shows, each one summed up in maybe twenty words. That makes it difficult to sift the diamonds from the dross, especially when many of the shows are world premieres and many of...

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The Ultimate Critics’ Pick of the Fringe 2009 – part 1

13th July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

The 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Official Programme has been available for about a month now. All the influential voices in theatre criticism have had plenty of time to comb through it and produce lists of recommendations. By analysing all these lists together, I've discovered this year's Ultimate Critics' Pick of the Fringe.
The Times, the Guardian, the London Evening Standard, the Scotsman and The List (the Scottish equivalent of Time Out)...

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The bearded man-witch doth protest too much

15th June 2009 | 21 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Followers of my Twitter stream may already know my views on responding to criticism. It's a debate most recently revived by Dame Judi Dench and Maureen Lipman, and this week I found myself on the receiving end.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed a production of Macbeth by Love&Madness at Riverside Studios for the British Theatre Guide. One member of the ensemble, actor/composer Arran Glass, took exception to my criticism and...

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