Evangelina Telfar
I joined Art Murmurs near the end of 2016. I was a fresh-faced writer in the theatre scene, and I believed that reviewing theatre would be good for my own writing practice. Reviewing also presented an affordable way to see more shows, something very appealing to me and my theatre-practitioner income. It didn’t take me long to realise what made being a reviewer challenging.
I have had a bit of a time with social anxiety but having to write honest reviews on the internet didn’t help. The small, insular nature of Te Whanganui-a-Tara theatre meant writing reviews for people I know, including good friends and creatives I admired. This quickly became a minefield that left me paralysed with fear and shame about what the subjects of my reviews would say or think. I would spend half a second during the show scribbling a word in my notebook, then waste hours later in the night trying to figure out all the possible connotations of it. I would spend the entire next day on a review that was only supposed to be 500 words. I would publish the review and spend days catastrophising about the next interaction I would have with any person who was part of the show. It wasn’t sustainable or healthy for me when I was already having a difficult time with my mental health. Most reviewers aren’t a bundle of nerves, but I have talked to other Art Murmurs reviewers about how they have had moments of wondering if being a theatre reviewer would complicate a friendship or lose them work. The reality is that for some, it has.
There is a distinct lack of boundaries between friends and colleagues in our industry that can lead to all sorts of problems. This is amplified by the Art Murmurs team being both artists and reviewers. Our community is so small that we likely know at least one person in the team staging the work. Gossip spreads fast, and we often have access to a huge amount of behind-the-scenes context, which makes objectivity complicated. As a team, we always try to address our relationship to the show and whether it is ethical to have a certain person review it. This is one of the complexities that left me doubting my own ability to be objective and whether I was the right person to do this job. I got more and more into my own head about this as I went on, and it was ultimately too much for me.
As an artist who has been on both sides of a review, I became increasingly aware of the responsibility of being a reviewer. I knew the sting of a critical review when I was already feeling vulnerable putting new work out into the world, and I personally didn’t want to put anyone in that position. That’s not to say that new work shouldn’t be critiqued. It’s an important part of the creative process and should be valued as such. There are few things as crucial as an outside eye. I just decided that I would prefer to give my thoughts to practitioners privately, if I was asked for feedback. However, the fact that Art Murmurs reviewers are artists and understand the amount of hours that go into a show is one of the reasons that I trust these reviews for my own work.
Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am one of the harshest film critics out there. I have given five stars to 15 films of the over 1,000 films I’ve rated on Letterboxd. Part of the reason that I review theatre and film so differently is due to the difference in the number of voices giving their opinion. It’s easy to write an honest comment on Letterboxd when it’s like putting a single chia seed in cake batter; Once it’s cooked, you probably won’t find that chia seed again. It’s a bit more complicated when you are going to be one of the only voices heard. There are currently a few places to approach for a theatre review. I would love to see more publications doing consistent performing-arts reviews in this city, as it would lessen the burden on individual reviewers to be diplomatic. Of course, I seriously doubt this will happen.
Due to dwindling arts funding, more and more positions in theatre require artists to work unpaid thankless jobs for this industry to continue to function. Arts reviewing is no different. There are very few opportunities to get paid to write performing-arts reviews. Platforms that do pay, do not pay an hourly wage that is representative of the amount of work required, rather a set standard rate, or will simply pay for your travel arrangements home after the show. Part of the reason that paid reviews are seen as outdated is because of the image of the old-white-man-critic being unnecessary in the age of social media word of mouth. However, I believe that in-depth reviews for artists can make a world of difference if funded. I have seen review feedback inform and evolve art, both within its initial season, and years later.
Art Murmurs is a completely volunteer-based organisation, and as much as we would like to change that, it’s not an easy fix. Our team is made up of artists who already do a lot of creative work for minimal pay and then have opted to review on top of that. Of course it is the reviewer’s choice to do this, but I couldn’t be more grateful to the team for their hard work and the huge amount of hours they take out of their lives to do this. I believe that the theatre community would be worse for wear without having multiple reviewing platforms that focus on different elements of a performance and styles of online presence.
So if I was to review theatre reviewing, I’d say it’s an absolutely necessary service for artists but something I will never do again.