Dramatic Criticism
, OOK SHOP and the fortnightly Arts Review last Friday set me thinking about the relative responsibilities of reviewers. That interesting and easy discussion between Messrs. Patience and Barry Martin on the current Architectural Centre’s exhibition, for example. The critics were enthusiastic; had they been critical, the exhibition was at any rate still there to speak for itself. The
same with books----the reviewer can express himself with refreshing, strictly personal candour, and the book is there to answer back. But the review of a dramatic performance is in the nature of an obituary on something that can no longer speak for itself. This poses something of a problem. for the reviewer, since a policy of nil nisi bonum would be dull for all parties. The discussion between Bruce Mason and Ron Bowie on the New Zealand Players production of Private Lives was lively, informed and appreciative. One just wishes there was some way of erecting a monument to a ‘performance after, rather than before, one gets to work on it with that pernick-
ety little chisel.
M.
B.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 767, 2 April 1954, Page 10
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179Dramatic Criticism New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 767, 2 April 1954, Page 10
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