>Hangover from a long day at work that is, not the drink.
We’re off to see Love and Money at the Young Vic tonight. It’s highly recommended here, here and here – so it had better be good.
A lot of debate about critics at the moment – Encore has a great piece about some critics’ desire for ‘clarity’ and their blindness to metaphor and subtlety. As if to confirm this, Billington’s latest review of Love Song contains the phrase:
…when the illusory heroine cries “Death to literalism”, I began to yearn for the attentiveness to the actual that once characterised American theatre.
Gotcha! If I could make things clear I’d write an essay, not weave a play – it’s a lot easier. Eric Bentley suggests that we could do without critics here (I don’t think I’d go that far). I found this article via the Ben Ellis, Alison Croggon, George Hunka route (all goldmines for the wider picture).
There’s an interesting corrective by Lyn Gardner to Billington’s review of The Waves on The Guardian‘s theatre blog.
Lance Woodman 