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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Gary Nunn

‘It was devastating’: theatremakers on the fallout from their worst reviews

Illustration for feature on bad reviews
‘Reviews are a necessary evil for some theatremakers, who crave them as much as they fear them.’ Illustration: Guardian Design/Alamy

When an unfavourable review recently came out about her new play, Australian director Janine Watson did something she’d never done before. She contacted the reviewer.

Tim Byrne had called her 2022 production of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors “waddling” and “full of errors, but nowhere near enough comedy”. Despite that, she thanked him.

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