Daily Archives: January 13, 2010


Tales From Ovid: The Anatomy #1

I was having a break between some fairly dull-but-necessary admin work for Ovid Reworked when the pull of a red pen and some scrap paper proved to be too much.

And thus the first ‘The Anatomy Of…’ was born. For if I was to draw the anatomy of The Brixton Project it might look like this:

Anatomy: #1

There’s a bigger version of it here. I think it sums up the last few weeks quite well, albeit had I been 100% true to events I would have written the word ‘SHUTTER’ all over the piece of paper because ‘Shutter Conversations’ have been many and plentiful (though, at least until we’re into the shop, pushed to one side with a solution – other than just locking everyone in and thus failing every fire safety policy there has ever been – having presented itself).


Wherein a Critic Hammers Another Nail In The Coffin.

I don’t think I was alone in doing something of a double take when I read Michael Coveney’s post about watching a preview of Legally Blonde. Specifically the bit where he appeared to projectile vomit all over his computer screen:

“I went on Saturday night and I’ve never sat in an audience so unreal or abnormal. Weird couples, clacking hen parties, simpering teenage girls: it was like being stuck in a nightmare college campus graduation ceremony.”

Yep, still had to do a double take when I copied that over because I’m not entirely sure which part of that paragraph is the most offensive.

I was going to write a rebuttal about Coveney’s prejudices (not to mention his hardly covered misogyny and contempt for a theatre audience who had paid to see a show) but others have already said so incredibly well that I’m going to point you in their direction instead:

Carrie Dun writing at Spotlight robustly and passionately defends the audience’s right to like something critically disliked.

The magnificent Mission Paradox blog wasn’t writing of Coveney when he wrote about art’s hostility to its audiences – but, crikey, someone should send Coveney the link pronto.

Finally, and gloriously, Sans Taste has what is possibly the most eloquent response to the whole debacle.