Rethink The Theatre Review: a Practice-perspective on Contemporary Cultural Critique by Anders Lange

Power Point and examples presentation

By Anders Lange, Danish School of Media and Journalism


Criticism of performing arts doesn’t have to stop - or even begin - with the written review. Reviews can exist BEFORE, UNDER, IMMIDEATELY AFTER, AFTER and in the AFTERMATH of a performance. This is among the conclusons of a Danish pilot project. Online media provides opportunities for an experience to be shared in several formats, all of which have different strengths and weaknesses. Theater criticism can thus greatly complement the classic review by using new dissemination tools. Thus concluded the leader of a pilotproject in Aarhus Denmark. In collaboration with the Aarhus Theatre, Have Kommunikation A/S, Aarhus European Capital of Culture 2017 and the Mid Jutland Region, Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) completed the pilot project, Rethink Theatre Reviews in 2017. A core of 10 young critics, primarily studying/working with Fine Arts or journalism, reviewed a number of performances at the Aarhus Theater in 2017 - a variety of platforms were explored - as did the content of a theater review. The conclusions from this pilot project are a.o. that different platforms provide variable opportunities to enhance the awareness of theater and theater reviews. Some platforms are ideal for giving recipients a stronger impression of a performance atmosphere and audience experince, while other formats can complement - and compete with - the virtues of the classical written theater review. Project leader Anders Lange, cultural journalist, associate professor and lecturer at the Danish School of Media and Journalism will briefly present the project's conclusions and discuss how the project can be continued. He has promised to spice up his speak with visual examples of some om the experiments! reviews.