Busy designer Tim Meacock opened two productions over the weekend: Salad Days at Riverside and The Making of Moo at the Orange Tree.
Both shows, in different ways, are 1950s classics, but there’s nothing remotely retro about Tim, who is like a modern beatnik, shabby and bright and long-haired and devoted to his wheelchair-bound partner Andrew who works for the Arts Council.
He’s turned the Riverside into a big expanse of green parkland where Varsity graduates, tramps, civil servants and policemen all cavort nuttily to the insidiously charming music of a magic piano, and he’s surrounded it (and them) with giant yellow drapes.
It’s all a delight — I’ve loved the show ever since I choreographed my Oxford college production — but it felt a bit slow, though Tim told me at the Orange Tree (he’d just arrived from the Saturday matinee) that the pace has picked up prodigiously.
Anyway, my choreography wasn’t a patch on Quinny Sacks’s for the current version, which is presented by the resourceful small opera company Tete a Tete.
I’d been alerted to it by the opera translator Amanda Holden, who played Jane in my college jape, so we went along together, even though we’ve always said “we wouldn’t look back.”
As the audience also included my Old Etonian chum Adrian Webster, who was “up” at Trinity with us and who now runs his own travel book publishing company, and a crowd of punters who looked as though they’d been, well, punting, quite recently, the whole evening took on a sort of surreal nostalgia haze.
Not surprisingly, half the audience sat at tables sipping Pimms. The other half looked like refugees from college and amateur revivals down the years.
There are no great surprises in Salad Days, certainly nothing to compare with the shock of The Making of Moo, a bracingly blasphemous comedy about a blood-curdling new religion in the colonies that opened at the Royal Court in 1957.
For this, Tim has designed a conventional colonial setting of wicker chairs and carpets exchanged, in the second act, for bovine skulls on staffs, a pontifical throne covered in a striped tarpaulin and a couple of mobile slabs where the visiting lawyers are stabbed and sacrificed at vespers.
This show awakened mixed memories for Michael Billington, who directed a production at his Oxford college in 1960 (“inept,” he says it was) buoyed up by Tynan’s recommendation that this play was the first outright attack on religion on the British stage.
His Old English tutor resigned in protest, having been overruled by the head of the college, the great historian Alan Bullock, when he tried to stop Michael dead in his tracks.
Billington found himself briefly famous, splashed all over the tabloid press, but he soon recovered his poise and his trademark lack of notoriety. The tutor, I’m told, died recently without ever having been welcomed back into the fold at St Cats.
Critics harking back to their salad days, when they were green in judgement, if not exactly cold in blood, are a bit of a menace at the moment. Ian Shuttleworth does it quite often, and Mark Shenton’s been telling us about his producing chops at Cambridge.
But at least it’s preferable to critics slagging each other off, which has been a recent and regrettable development on the internet blogs, in diary stories in print, and in interval conversation. I’ve never known anything like it before.
Now it’s got too personal, with Tim Walker of the Sunday Telegraph allegedly making size-ist remarks about Shuttleworth (though he doesn’t name him) in response to a concerted campaign of name-calling and jeering by Shuttleworth and others.
Ignorance and stupidity have long been the prerogatives of all theatre critics, so I don’t really see the point of getting all aerated about someone who is just a bit more blatantly ignorant and stupid than is usual.
And critics are adept at getting hold of the wrong end of any stick that’s proffered anyway, that’s part of the job description.
One colleague did me down twice in one sentence the other night, suggesting I’d never liked Blood Brothers and that I thought that there should be a best new musical category (as there used to be) as well as a best musical one in the Standard awards.
Neither remark relates to anything I’ve ever said or written, but only the first stung as I alone among all the current critics attended and wrote rhapsodically about the first ever performance of Blood Brothers at the Liverpool Playhouse way back in January 1983, long before Bill Kenwright re-launched the still running revival in 1988.
And now, suddenly, it’s getting slightly creepy five star reviews all over again, as if by magic, or at least the direct intervention of canny Kenwright, who’s always gone out of his way to cultivate the critics when it suits him.
I could go into a long defence of why I’ve several times pointed out egregious howlers in Tim Walker’s reviews, but I’d no doubt get too pompous and tedious about it. Suffice it to say that we disagree as to whether there’s merely a difference in degree or a fundamental one in kind between run-of-the-mill lackadaisical reviewing and Tim’s frequent apparent idiocies.
What I do take issue with is your allegation of “concerted”: there’s been no collusion or conspiracy between myself and anyone else in our criticisms of Tim, just a coincidence of perspective. Likewise “name-calling”: that’s what he did about me, in contrast to myself and others addressing what he actually writes. You’ll note, for instance, that above I refer to his “idiocies” – the writing – rather than “idiocy”, which would have been ad hominem.
And there’s certainly nothing alleged about the comments which took up more than half of Tim’s review of “Pains Of Youth”, about a fat bloke sitting behind him that evening – it being a matter of record that I was sitting behind him and a matter of the bleeding obvious to anyone who sees me that I’m fat. Unless you meant the allegation was that he’d written it in response to my/our alleged campaign. Well, I should bloody well hope so, because if he’d just done it out of the blue it would be utterly barbarous.
You rarely get any of this spite in the Times! How dull. I must change my paper!
How about settling it with a bout of arm wrestling during the interval of the next first night ?
Point taken, though objective criticism is always taken as “ad hominem” in the theatre, as we well know when in receipt of feedback “friends” whose work we have disliked; what I have I done to insult you, is the usual response.
Michael, kind of you to acknowledge this tiresome campaign that my rather larger-than-life colleague has been waging, along with others who are now in the business of orchestrating a little letter-writing campaign in connection with my allegedly “fattist” remarks. For the record, they are from a small number of critics past and present – not a single normal reader among them – so I am not especially bothered. If necessary, however, I shall run a prominent correction this Sunday to put an end to this: “Ian Shuttleworth: an apology. I may have implied in a review earlier this month that Mr Shuttleworth is a man of above average weight. This is manifestly untrue and I wish to apologise unreservedly and make a hefty donation to Macdonalds or another cause close to his heart…” I think he was annoyed I turned down his offer to join the Critics’ Circle. I see that Matthew Norman has run with the story this morning in his Guardian column – I guess he, in turn, is annoyed that I replaced his wife as the Sunday Telegraph’s theatre critic – but sometimes, honestly, one simply has to light a cigar and sit back and chuckle about it all. You seem to be a thorougly cultured and convivial chap and recognises the right of people to hold views that may be contrary to your own. I like, too, Charles and Christopher Hart and Quentin Letts and Benedict Nightingale and all the women critics, but, as for the rest, they do seem a gruesome bunch. Do they never, by the way, make mistakes – like, say, confusing Paul Dacre with his son, the director, when they reviewed The Mountaintop?
And two other things: I love this idea that it is ‘a matter of record’ that he was sitting behind me. Who on earth would have known who either of us were? So he was the one who declared to the world he was Giant Haystacks and admitted, into the bargain, he left at the interval. This seems to me somewhat ‘lackadaisical’: I at least always make a point of sitting through plays until the end. That, it seems to me, is a basic courtesty to the actors as much as anything else. If I leave a play at the interval – occasionally I have done so because I consider play utter rubbish – I always make a point of owning up to it in my review.
Fact: no letter-writing campaign has been orchestrated, although a number of colleagues have been kind enough to let me know after the fact that they have written.
Fact: that “small number of critics” currently stands, to the best of my knowledge, at six. I have never in my professional life known such widespread strength of feeling expressed in this way.
Fact: there is, it seems to need repeating for the benefit of some, nothing alleged about what was said. The implication that I’m trying to deny being fat is absurd in the face of my comments above Tim’s own here.
Fact: Tim described himself in correspondence at the time as “immensely flattered” by the Critics’ Circle’s invitation to him to apply for membership, and eagerly pursued matters, but then suddenly decided not only to withdraw his application but, rather than informing the Circle, to write in his review column about how and why he claimed to have done so, misrepresenting matters in the process.
Fact: Matthew Norman’s media column is in the Independent. Its name is in quite big letters across the front of the paper, which is a different shape from the Guardian, as well as being prominently displayed on the web site, which to further reduce confusion has a different URL. But then, I believe McDonald’s has a number of branches around the place (although I can’t recall eating there myself since an isolated occasion in the early ’90s), and Tim also misspells that.
Fact: Tim likes “all the women critics” so much that in his latest column he denies the existence of one of them when he boasts “I was the first to read the last rites to Too Close to the Sun”, ignoring the fact that Rhoda Koenig’s Independent review (as well as Dominic Maxwell’s in The Times and Michael Billington’s in the Guardian) appeared before his.
Fact: the “Paul Dacre” mistake he cites was made by Lyn Gardner, one of the female critics he likes so much.
Fact: three female critics have written letters condemning his “Giant Haystacks” remarks.
Fact: I haven’t written about Pains Of Youth, nor shall I, nor did I intend to. I wasn’t on FT duty. That’s why I felt able to leave at the interval. Unlike Tim in the case of Trevor Griffiths’ “Comedians”, about which he wrote fiercely without having seen the final act which sets the foregoing into context.
Fact: “I at least always make a point of sitting through plays until the end” is immediately contradicted by “If I leave a play at the interval…”, so it doesn’t really strike a terribly impressive posture.
See, I knew I’d get all pompous. But as I say, I comment about the substantive aspects of Tim’s writing rather than about his character or shape.
Given that the ignorant, self-serving Tim Walker’s appointment as theatre “critic” of the Sunday Telegraph is an insult to Alan Brien, Frank Marcus and Francis King, his illustrious predecessors in the job, why are you even bothering to give house room to anything he has to say? He’s an egregious fool who, every time he puts pen to paper, makes an ass of himself. Just leave it at that.
Ian, would you mind answering these seven questions:
How do you know specifically that it is six critics who have written to the Sunday Telegraph if this is not orchestrated?
Who are the six critics?
Did you give the ‘story’ to Matthew Norman, the husband of the woman I replaced as the Sunday Telegraph’s theatre critic?
Are you happy to be associated with the tone and content of Norman’s piece?
Do you often leave plays at the interval when you are technically off duty?
Did I ever ask to be a member of the Critics’ Circle?
I note you are quick to pick me up on who it was who actually made the Paul Dacre ‘howler’: have you a special notebook where you note the mistakes that every critic makes?
I am not sure who Clive Hirschhorn is or was, but it is fascistic to say of anyone that they have no right to express themselves.
Wasn’t John Gross any good as the Sunday Telegraph’s theatre critic, by the way? And what about Mrs Matthew Norman?
Aren’t they to be allowed house room either?
Guys, hilarious though all this is to the rest of us, don’t you think you should just leave it now? Petty squabbling never helped anyone and, frankly, you’re all looking increasingly like children (albeit very verbose children).
Boo hoo, Fatty started it.
Sorry, Jasmine, I realise it gets tedious. Me, I thought I’d left the playground for good 30-odd years ago, but jeers came out after me through the railings.
I’m an actor and I thought we were the bitterest bitches in the business.
How refreshing!
See ya
Yeah, but you lot do it with flair
Yeah, and you are a lot more aesthetically appealing, by and large
Nah, to be fair I am a bit overweight.
He is. He’s hefty alright. I’m an actor too. But you boys fairly got the claws out there. Meaow.
Tim:
> would you mind answering these seven questions:
Yes, and I suspect so would increasing numbers of others, but in the interests of full disclosure I’ll do so.
> How do you know specifically that it is six critics who have written to the Sunday Telegraph if this is not
> orchestrated?
As I wrote earlier, they let me know themselves.
> Who are the six critics?
Paul Taylor you know about, through Matthew Norman’s piece, and Rhoda Koenig has said she’s happy to be quoted; as for the others, I won’t break their confidence.
> Did you give the ’story’ to Matthew Norman, the husband of the woman I replaced as the Sunday
> Telegraph’s theatre critic?
No.
> Are you happy to be associated with the tone and content of Norman’s piece?
I’m not associated with it.
> Do you often leave plays at the interval when you are technically off duty?
Sometimes, for instance when I’m ill, as I was that evening.
> Did I ever ask to be a member of the Critics’ Circle?
No, but you seemed awfully keen to be.
> I note you are quick to pick me up on who it was who actually made the Paul Dacre ‘howler’: have you a
> special notebook where you note the mistakes that every critic makes?
No, I rely on Theatre Record magazine which reprints all the major reviews, and which as editor I proofread every fortnight. You might also find Clive Hirschhorn in there, but you won’t find him, there, here, or anywhere else, saying what you suggest he does.
Firstly, my apologies to other readers of this blog for piggy backing on an article in a way that I am about to say I don’t approve of. Not meaning to be hypocritical but not sure how else to get this out there (to the critics obviously inciting this act and those participating in it). This article does go some way to allowing this comment to be written as it is not solely restricted to Mr. Meacock’s plays.
Critics (through their newspaper columns or publications) and bloggers on their sites have a medium to comment, as well as the time to do it. Writing a letter to an editor that will more likely than not end up in the bin has little appeal for me, but perhaps this comment might encourage other readers to change who they choose to read and how they obtain theatre news and reviews in the future. As for the Independent (not the Guardian as the ever informed Mr. Walker commented) column written by Matthew Norman, I’m glad that journalists recognise incompetency within their own peer group as well as outside of it and do their best to point out poor journalism to readers and hopefully the Editors to whom the public somewhat rely on to validate the writings of their staff.
Below is a summary of what I am about to say (as I found out this comment has become quite wordy and perhaps you won’t find time to read the whole comment that follows.
Bloggers, please keep blog articles specific to the title / content. Anecdotes and associated stories are great, they add flavour and broaden and encourage interest. Inciting friction amongst ‘peers’ is not responsible to your readership. Do so on a personal blog but not on a site that is supposedly dedicated to theatre news and reviews.
Comments should be related to the article – not other comments made by contributors (unless they were pertaining to the article in the first place).
A personal opinion. Ignore reading Tim Walker’s idiotic comments and inaccurate reviews (and those of the bigoted Christopher Hart that he so kindly ‘recommends’ to us in his first of two comments). And in anticipation of Mr. Walker responding in his usual adult way (as per his two comments to the article), you’re right, it is my opinion, but I’m not conjuring up the facts to make my comment valid.
How we got here. I was simply looking up The Making of Moo (The Orange Tree) on Google as I plan on seeing it. Whatsonstage appeared fourth on the list, so having read other articles I decided to read the blog article too. Further to this I decided to read the ‘Comments’ section to see what other (possibly learned) people had written (having seen a comment posted by Mr. Shuttleworth and Mr. Walker). The comments section struck an ever familiar chord. Comments attached to articles are less about the piece that has been posted but become a medium for debating/fighting/insults between some. I do find it more than irritating (as I’m sure other readers do, or do they?). As Peter Harlock comments, ‘You rarely get any of this spite…I must change my paper!”, it can be seen by some as entertaining if they don’t care to take the article’s content in context of the site’s aims or if they simply want to inflame the situation by giving the concerned parties a good goading.
To follow on from Mr. Walker’s “not a single normal reader among them” comment; here goes.
Well here is a response from a “normal reader” (which I will assume in the light of any other description of what ‘normal’ is that the only requirement is that I am not a critic?).
I can fully understand why Mr. Shuttleworth is angry at Mr. Walker. I feel his comment about a “larger than life character” etc is completely infantile and wounding. It’s a shame that Mr. Shuttleworth has added his comment to this blog picking up on a few lines in the article when I’m sure he has much more interesting things to write about the two pieces being discussed in the opening paragraph of it. All the comment did was serve the arrogant and belligerent Mr. Walker with another opportunity to post a further comment proving what an insensitive bully he can be – Incidentally, I note Mr. Walker does not have a blog area of his own where he could simply set up an on-going blog article where he can put all of his idiotic bully boy comments and leave them out of the reviews that he is obviously paid to do. Less effort on offending other critics, his readers and the Telegraph. Perhaps he could dedicate his time to researching the facts and perhaps silencing the other critics but doing his job properly? I confess that I did read part of the article (mind you not purchased, the paper was lying around in a cafe bar) and I read (with the usual expectation of inaccuracies and lack of content) until I just couldn’t be bothered with the aggressive and arrogant opinion any longer. Usually Mr. Walker’s attempt at a theatre review is a couple of paragraphs out of a rather large column space, perhaps as little as 20%.
It is a shame that Mr. Coveney has chosen to add this comment “Now it’s got too personal, with Tim Walker of the Sunday Telegraph allegedly making size-ist remarks about Shuttleworth” into his article knowing that in-fighting is on-going. Surely he knew it would only incite the individuals into making a response (which of course it did). I would only hope that Mr. Coveney’s journalistic background has not made him so naive to think that this would not have repercussions; I therefore find it somewhat irresponsible from a person I really do expect more of.
Admittedly I do not have to read this blog, I know that I have stopped reading other articles as the journalist has suddenly gone ‘off the rails’ and the availability of information is readily available elsewhere. I once enjoyed reading the theatre reviews during the week as well as on Sunday (in pretty much every Sunday paper). Now however, I find myself reading the blogs of the two critics whose writing I respect (Mr. Shenton in his ‘The Stage’ blog along with Mr. Coveney on this site’s blog) along with a handful of online reviews (too many are written by individuals who are not “professional” critics and offer nothing more than opinions without the critique) and selectively reading papers that have theatre reviews providing accurate content, reasoned arguments and historical references, as you might expect to find in the “The Independent ” (well done to Mr. Coveney for his coverage, and welcome back to the fabulously erudite Mr. Taylor), “The Daily Telegraph” (brilliantly informative Mr. Spencer), “The Sunday Express” (the aforementioned Mr. Shenton whose articles and blog is packed full of theatre history and current news), “The Mail on Sunday” (succinct and humorous Ms. Brown), “The Daily Mail” (Mr. Letts is candid and full of enthusiasm), “The Evening Standard” (The relatively new Henry Hitchings offers a wealth of information both from experience as well as researched material that you can really sink your teeth into), “The Metro”, a wonderful publication that offers throw away tasters that whet the appetite. So much good work is out there, it’s a shame that the standard is lacking in some of the other publications. How simple would it be to remove the likes of Mr. Walker and replace him with a Theatre expert such as Mr. Coveney, Mr. Shenton or bring back Rebecca Tyrell (after all, sometimes you do have to go backwards to go forwards)!
For now I will continue to look for articles that have content and criticism as One would expect from professionals, although having written this, I doubt I have time to do any more research today!
Can’t you swap e-mails or phone numbers and discuss it between yourselves? I can’t believe this is the way you actually want to behave in public or have the public see you behaving.
Mr. Coveney, perhaps you can clean this blog up and remove these comments?
Better still Brian, maybe they can meet up behind the bike sheds and settle this oldskool.
Now, Brian, that’s the kind of chastisement that’s entirely legitimate and I have no qualms at all about accepting, and once again apologising for the extent to which I’ve given in to the temptation to comment and keep commenting. As I do again now… oh, bugger…
The phrase “under employed” comes to mind.
On this blog and that of Mr Shenton there has been a fairly constant theme in the past months of the gradual demise of theatre criticism both in terms of quality and also paid employment for critics. Above, you have a perfect example of why.
I don’t know either of you, fat or thin, old or young, tall or short. I only know you by what you write and how you behave. That either of you can behave like this and hold down a proper job where, presumably, someone is foolish enough to pay you is astounding. Please fill your days with someting other than school playground slagging.
I suspect Dinosaurs died out because they too turned on one another when time were tough. I am sure it is geat sport to try and undermine one another in the hope that you can dislodge someone from a job that you can then have a crack at getting yourself but don’t you think the people in charge, and the public, see straight though you?
Since we’re both – incredibly as it might seem – already employed as senior reviewers by major titles, what motive would either of us have in migration?
Ian – a fair point. I assume therefore that you are spiteful little drama queens with too much time on your hands. Fill your days with something wothwhile, not this.
For what it’s worth, I like Ian better.
Always back the big kid in a fight, that’s my motto.
He’s a big man but he’s out of shape!
oh, come on, we all love the theatre and isn’t that about letting everyone express themselves? i am a lawyer and i know ‘vulgar abuse’ is allowable in terms of the written word and long may it continue in all forms of journalism. i like walker’s reviews when i read them at my club: they make me laugh. what i like about his reviews is his glorious inconsistency. just as the daily mail always seems to hate any play with a left wing theme, the guardian and independent seem to love them for the same token. with walker he doesn’t seem at all bothered by his paper’s politics.
I am not trying to be funny, but is it normal for journalists on one paper to ask for a journalist on another paper to be removed and have him/her replaced by someone they want? Wished it worked like that in football!
I have absolutely no idea who all these people are, nor what they are on about. I did see Salad Days, though, and it was FANTSTIC from all points of view, a perfect, happy, joyous show, fight to get a ticket. Perhaps Mr Coveney’s head is too full for real enjoyment, what a great shame.
Stephen: yup, damn right, I’m afraid it really is that sad. And I’d only beat Tim in a fight if I got the drop on him to begin with, literally, out of a tree or something.
And I don’t actually want to keep this going, but I tell you what: I publicly predict that Tim’s review of The Habit Of Art next Sunday, 22 November, will include a number of deprecatory remarks ostensibly about the girth of actor Richard Griffiths but really pointed elsewhere entirely. No prizes for correct guessing, just a bit of fun. Let’s see, shall we?
Mr.Shuttleworth,if you “don’t actually want to keep this going”,please stop and take a deep breath or go and seek help.
Your paranoid meanderings have led you to the point where you imagine that a forthcoming review of an actor’s performance will contain coded messages about you.
It’s not funny any more,it’s not relevant – just sad and disturbing.
I just love the guy who writes that he is “a normal theatre goer” and goes on for about 30,000 words about it. Is that normal? Say what you like about Walker, but at least he seems to have dropped out of this conversation 80,000 messages ago.
Glad that you like ‘all the women critics’, Tim. Perhaps next time you could do us the honour of mentioning us by name?
Only just come across this:
“I like, too, Charles and Christopher Hart and Quentin Letts and Benedict Nightingale and all the women critics, but, as for the rest, they do seem a gruesome bunch.”
Hey! Ouch! I’m not sure we’ve even met. I guess I probably don’t count. Ho hum.
What is this? Group therapy for unappreciated theatre critics?
Can we expect live commentary from Mr Shuttleworth when this review appears with its coded references to his girth?
PS It seems to me the way for Mr Shuttleworth to have the last laugh is to go on a crash diet between now and publication and that way the other critic will look like a right twat.
OMG! I have just seen from Mr Shuttleworth’s last post that the review is pubilshed TOMORROW. We have only hours to wait. The suspension is unbearable.
Look out for things like -
* Read the first letters of each sentence or paragraph and see if they spell out something like “Shuttleworth is a fat bastard” (that’s an old journo trick);
* With a pin, see if the letters can be dislodged and then check underneath any of them to see if there is microfiche bearing unpleasant remarks about Mr Shuttleworth;
* Also, obviously, check the copy itself, the pictures and the headlines
I have been interested in these postings as I have only lately completed a phd on The Language of Hate addressing contemporary issues of stigmatisation in the workplace. I wish they had been drawn to my attention earlier. I would, however, like to know is Ian Shuttleworth overweight as a result of a recognised/accepted/documented medical condition? This is fundamental to this discussion. I talked to university students in Edinburgh and other academic centres and while it was generally felt that it is wrong to ridicule anyone on account of their colour or sexuality or background – things that they can’t change – there is arguably merit on doing so on accont of weight in that it encourages people to diet, have better self esteem and generally live healthier lives. Also I would like to know what language was used in relation to describing Ian Shuttleworth’s weight. Sometimes it can be done in a way that is positive/inspirational/beneficial. A great many overweight people like to believe in victimhood, ie, that they are being stigmatised unfairly or take refuge in a belief that they are overweight because of an often imagined medical condition. Often they are compulsive eaters and the cycle of compulsion has to be broken by intervention – “tough love” if you like. I take issue with the idea that stigmatisation on account of weight ends when we leave the classroom – I think it is a life long issue. It effects all areas of our lives at all times – inter personal relationships, health, self esteem, longevity. I am myself overweight but am addressing the situation and found this study that I have just completed to have been helpful and hope to have it published.
Since my all but lifelong morbid obesity is fundamentally a result of self-esteem issues, I think it unlikely that mendacious public mockery such as “his huge, hot tummy protruded ever more insistently against my head and shoulders as the evening progressed… I started to fret that this was the way I was going to go: fighting for my breath in blubber” will prove dietetically inspirational to me.
And, damn, turns out I was wrong about the Habit Of Art review. Speculation as to whether I was too early in my prediction, giving Tim a chance to change his copy before his deadline, or whether someone higher up had a quiet word with him, would just be more “sad and disturbing” paranoia, I guess. The Hackwatch column in the latest issue of Private Eye details past, quite real, instances of such “coded messages”… but I suppose in general the Eye gets it right: our spat on this blog has indeed been “riotously childish”. Now, where did I throw that rattle?
Yes, well done on the Hackwatch piece. I do hope all of this is boosting your freelance earnings.
2.31 am by the way? Isn’t this honestly becoming a bit obsessive, even by your standards?
“Since my all but lifelong morbid obesity is fundamentally a result of self-esteem”
So, just to clarify – You are fat because you eat too much because you don’t like yourself. Is this correct? Does slating other journalists enable you to like yourself more. If so, keep going. This must be good thearpy.
So Ian Shutleworth logs on at 2:31 am – Big deal. I’m sure he is able to monitor his own bedtime.
Sorry, Timothy (S01E05) – not everyone’s mother makes them go to bed at 10pm
And as for Ian being obsessed; Tim returning to post 10 days after the original post date doesn’t do much to assuage his own OBSESSIVE behaviour!
@ Stephen Wilkinson
So would you approve of someone taking one of YOUR personal attributes and using that as a basis for your ability to perform your job?
I have no idea what you do for a living, but if I chose to write a publication for general consumption (in your business) that commented on your body odour, or baldness or stupidity around eating disorders, how would you take it? How would the people receiving the publication view it? Yes, they might know a little more about you than they didn’t know already, but they’d probably think I was fairly petty to be using you as the meat for my document.
I don’t see Ian slating Tim, just commenting on Tim’s inability to get his facts right. Don’t expect to get it wrong and get away with it in a public domain.
@ Rosemary Dixon
You’re too fat to get your work Phd work published. does that sound supportive? No, so don’t make your sweeping comments to the more “generously proportioned”. Put yourself in the receivers place, let them decide whether or not it’s okay to be bullyed, it’s not your right to say what people should or should not be willing to accept.
Apologies, should be @ Rosemary Dickman not Dixon
Stupid name, your work will not get published.
I would say, had I not been in a relationship with a well known theatre producer for seven years, that I am surprised by all of the sheer inhumanity on this website. In terms of what precipitated this, I see no more than a clash of personalities between Mr Shuttleworth and Mr Walker and at least they are each man enough to write under their own names. No doubt this spat will pass. They are both grown ups after all.
So many other nasty people posting, though. My, oh my. I think that it is disgraceful in particular what Mal Kwitter says. How much more of a man he would be to write under this own name. How pathetic an individual he must be. How worthless he must feel when he looks at himself in the mirror each night, contemplating his tiny, smelly and miss-shaped penis and the mirth it must cause women on the handful of occasions that I imagine had managed to get one drunk enough to overlook his revolting personality. Now, clearly, this poor prat can only get his kicks out of anonymously abusing strangers on websites. Why can he not go off and abuse himself which is doubtless the only other pastime he has?
More interesting to me is what Mr Shuttleworth has to say. It is brave of him to admit to low self esteem. I admire that. One of the things I have come to recognise is that over-eating is an addiction, just as much as alcohol and drugs. I want to make it clear I have no knowledge whatsover of Mr Shuttleworth’s case but experience has shown me that one addiction can lead on to another. I have seen that happen on many occasions.
I want to know if Mr Shuttleworth is a member of any self help groups: there are ways of breaking the cycle of low self esteem = over-eating = low self esteem and so on and so on. I think it is perhaps worth saying here what constitutes morbid obesity which is what Mr Shuttleworth says he technically is: a body weight of more than 100 lbs. over your ideal body weight, or you have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 40, or have a BMI of over 35 and are experiencing severe negative health effects, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, related to being severely overweight unable to achieve a healthy body weight for a sustained period of time, even through medically supervised dieting. I would like to know more. I would like to help. Even on a website such as this, it is possible to be human.
PS This is how you spell “bullied” – not “bullyed”, you illiterate gargoyle
Thank you to Rosemary Dickman for her enlightened response.
Firstly, this sight is for Theatrical news and reviews and not a mental health or food disorder site – try typing ‘obesity blog’ into Google for a list of sites that cater for the topic and afford opportunities to offer guidance to individuals that request (or don’t request) it.
N.B. Deliberate spelling mistake for ‘sight’ so individuals who prefer to correct splleing and grammar can stop now focusing on that and actually pay attention to the crux of this and previous comments – yes Ms Dickman that does refer to your final comment directly. Thanks must be extended though for pointing out my spelling error, but grown ups [sic] in glass houses should not throw stones whatsover [sic].
The original article is pertaining to an on-going (?) spat between Tim Walker (through his abusive comments) and Ian Shuttleworth – of which, Ian has responded that he is not happy with Tim’s “name calling” in a recent review. This has stemmed from historical (and continual errors) pointed out by a number of journalists (including Private Eye recently – which was a very “entertaining” piece, factually accurate – I don’t know – does it need to be to get into PE??).
Secondly, Mal Kwitter [sic] is the only identity I wish to disclose and therefore I have the right to go under a pseudonym if I so wish. It really has nothing to do with the content of the comment – the comment simply expresses my feelings to your vitriolic and fascist response to body type. For all you know I’m Mr. Dickman sick and tired of your singular viewpoint of body type based around a PhD thesis that you sought to prove for the last ‘x’ number of years. But please, do call me by my real name if it helps you understand the comment better, I’m Mal Kwiter (with one ‘k’).
Thirdly, you are making huge assumptions about me. I have simply responded to your description of yourself in a “tough love” approach – to which you write “arguably has merit”. You are both able; and indeed you say, are “working to address” your weight issue – and you are capable of changing your name. I did not post any comments about my own physical or mental characteristics so you can’t respond to them unless you are trying to emulate Tim Walker’s adult style. You are right, I am male (good guess as you still had a 50/50 chance of getting that wrong and a female would have found the remainder of your insults even more ridiculous than I did). However, you choose to comment on me having a “tiny” penis – now I know operations do exist that promise penis growth, but that’s a medical enhancement, not something One can change by taking a different mental approach to it. Surely this contradicts your earlier statement? If you have discovered a method to increase penis size by all means let the world know here; I’m sure most men, well endowed or not, would jump at the chance to put your wisdom to good use. I might also be a gay male and therefore seducing women would also be factually incorrect. Your attack makes it sound like you think you know who I am; but you obviously do not.
Personally I am not a body fascist; I believe happiness in your own self is actually the key point. When One is ‘prepared’ to lose weight I’m sure that One will do – otherwise support and encouragement are ‘alternative’ approaches in assisting people achieve their goals rather than hurling abusive comments at them; be that from a ‘medical’ or ‘factual’ standpoint I.E. “You are morbidly obese, you need to do something about that before it kills you” said with a look of disgust or from a poisonous opinionated view I.E. “You fat bastard” said with anger and contempt.
Your PhD thesis on “The Language of Hate” has done little to enhance your understanding of how carefully selected words can be a catalyst for a plethora of responses. You yourself have responded in a ‘predictably’ defensive manner as you don’t like to hear the so-called merited approach turned back upon yourself (I had hoped your response might be one of an educated individual – superior to any illiterate gargoyle, balancing arguments between both supportive and encouraging methodologies as well as shock treatment methods. You response could have been severely damaging if any of the above were true about me (unfortunately your guessing luck ran out here and you have selected attributes that are nothing at all like me and I feel you have made yourself out to look more than a little foolish – if indeed it was you that wrote that response and not another person pretending to be you – oh yes, do you really think that Tim Walker wrote – “Fatty started it”? You are more than capable of typing in Mal Kwiter and responding to this response should you so wish. And just to pre-empt your reply, I’m not in denial – HONEST – I feel I REALLY must tell the truth on here).
You also serve to degrade women (in my old fashioned opinion) by stating that they are incapable of distinguishing right from wrong when they get drunk (arguably a feature of becoming intoxicated) and that they will have sexual intercourse with a man that is so repulsive – do not; however, judge everyone by your standards. If this unfortunate incident has happened to you I am most sorry for you but professional groups do exist to help you overcome this.
As I’m sure Ian Shuttleworth is or would be doing if he so feels the need. I’m sure your need to know is ‘genuine’; your academic interest of this person somewhat makes me feel you would approach this as a lab rat experiment rather than a genuine offer of help to resolve any issues that the individual might actually have. If you are not trained in this field I certainly would not recommend offering counselling assistance or a “can you fill in this survey” and provide a full psychological assessment; you might potentially make the situation worse. A recent article I read had something along the lines of: “I don’t take my car to a librarian to get fixed”.
Your offer of help also seems quite contrary to what Ian is commenting about in the first place (so less reason to seek advice from someone that supports this body fascist argument – whatever the intention). Ian was not happy with Tim’s description (accuracy not withstanding as Ian admits to being morbidly obese) and you are saying that such attitudes are ‘useful’ – perhaps that is “proven” in your ‘research’, but where is the balanced argument that One expects to hear on alternative approaches?
I humbly apologise if I have upset you or anyone else in any way, it was not my intention. My comments were not intended to persecute you. Perhaps my method was wrong, but I attempted to bring to light the fact that the written word can be interpreted in many ways and that all individuals are just that, individual. One solution does not fit all and if Ian has written to complain that “public mockery” is not acceptable, than that is his opinion towards the piece (and one shared by a huge number of the population including the 6 journalists that wrote to the Editor) and no-one has the right to tell him that his opinion is less valid than their own. On the other hand, factual inaccuracies (such as those made by Tim walker) are able to be criticised and corrected as there is evidence to support that the information was incorrectly cited, referenced or communicated and should not be responded to with personal attacks against the person correcting the error.
I personally feel that a public apology (to Ian) is still outstanding (by Tim Walker and the Sunday Telegraph) and that a further apology for any errors pertaining to inaccuracies in the reviews should be forthcoming to the reader.
Although this is a theatrical news and reviews site I feel it necessary to correct the Ms Dickman’s comment above as it is incorrect to some degree. For anyone wishing to know the current (yes it does change) definition of obesity I recommend going to the NHS direct website. I would also strongly recommend discussing this matter with their doctor (I.E The experts in this field). Suffice to say, BMI is not a conclusive measure as it based on proportionate measurements and not on body type or age. For example a body builder can be 5’8”, weigh 14 stones (172 cm and 89 kg) and have a BMI of 30+. It’s is not a useful tool for the young or elderly.
And finally, I bow out of this blog as it is has gone from a theatrical blog to a “Group therapy for unappreciated theatre critics” (lavretsky) to a PhD student’s desire to get a “name” to add credibility to an already biased (information available to date) study and my lunch break is more important than educating a PhD student that has their own agenda about spelling…isn’t that what this was about??
I challenge you to identify yourself then. Why I talked about your penis in the way that I did was because I had reason to believe I did know you once, pretty well. I know the tone. I know you are the only man in London to have time to write this garbage (how long did the essay above take you, by the way,particularly as you had to check all the words more than three letters long in the dictionary?)
And I know what a loathsome scumbag you are, too, don’t I, Richard (whoops, hope I haven’t let the cat out of the bag or, more pertiently, your tiny penis out of its mouldy Y fronts…?) As I say, I know this world: went out with a very well known producer for quite some considerable time and I know all the so-called “personalities” of theatreland – yes, all the losers and the chancers. Anyway, I am pleaesd you are now bowing out of this conversation – presumably you are off to indugle your usual hobby?
Regarding Dickman vs. Kwiter – which one is Shuttleworth and which one Walker?
Lavretsky, obviously MalKwiter is an anagram of Tim Walker.
And R.Dickman is close to an anagram of Mandrake – Walker’s nom-de-plume in the Telegraph.
Students of Mr Shuttleworth would recognise his style,especially his inordinate verbosity, in Mal Kwiter’s posts – especially the one posted on November 27th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I read Tim Walker’s stuff and almost wrote to the editor to say that he shouldn’t be appointed chief critic. Since then he’s often name-dropped upon near spurious grounds, been rude and insulting, gratuitously saying writers have no talent, performers are not “as good as they think they are” – what a spiteful schoolboy thing to say – and giving me the impression he’s trying to build himself up as a personality when he has none – see his thin-lipped appearance as a reviewer of newspapers on the BBC’s world news. He’s an unworthy successor to critics like Alan Brien and Francis King. A well-known theatre director told me not to let such a “twerp” upset me so much. Otherwise, I’ve nothing against the child.
I am an Arsenal season-ticket holder. I get upset when the Arsenal fans shout at the visiting fans: “Who Are Ya?” “Who Are Ya?” thus showing disrespect to fellow Football fans. Mutatis mutandis Mr. Walker. He should resign.
I’ve never had a handle on the person who delights in his own revolting behaviour, and then offers disingenuous protest at a poor reception. Arrogance being the flipside of frailty explains it to a point but criticism in the pure sense is a long way from what is pedalled by Coveney and Shuttleworth. Is it worth noting that several critics have had a brief, fruitless dalliance with a theatre career? Is it key that personal – not to mention irrelevant – remarks are so frequently aimed at creative and cast team members? Then, as though in an ugly sideshow, critics turn on themselves. Perhaps they do have a theatrical bent after all. A triumph. *****
Gosh, and still it rumbles on…!
CrediBately: students of me might recognise my style, but in that case whoever did write the Mal Kwiter posts is a keen pasticheur, because I swear it wasn’t me. I haven’t posted pseudonymously at all on this or any other blog since the Guardian finally let me log in using my own address two or three years ago – previously I’d been there as “Roy Watson”, but had never disguised that that was in fact Ian Shuttleworth. And I haven’t exactly been shy about my involvement in this thread, now, have I?
Morton Fielding: fervent accusations, perhaps more fervent than accurate. I challenge you to cite three examples by me of “personal – not to mention irrelevant – remarks [...] aimed at creative and cast team members”. If it helps, over 2000 of my reviews are online at http://www.shutters.org.uk
Ho, otherwise, hum.
If you ask me all the critics are as bad as each other. I was reading The Independent reviewer Rona Koenig’s review of the Lyric Hammersmith’s Christmas panto. She said that Patrick Marmion directed it. No, Patrick Marmion is the Daily Mail theatre critic. It was Chris Marmion who directed it. It seems to me reviewers should spend less time gazing upon their own navels and look down on the stage?
I know that woman from the Independent – all the guys sing “who let the dogs out?” whenever she appears and for once I agree with them.
Critics don’t have much time to get it right, poor loves. If you want an entertaining read – try Shuttleworth; he’s all over the shop – grammaticality and factually. Ian – if you want to get together and talk it over (I’d love to) then let’s. Name the venue, name the day.
Shuttleworth is too big a star to see you now, love — did you not see Britain’s Fattest Man on Sunday night?
I saw that programme and thought it was rubbish – it reinforced all sorts of prejudices against fat people. I am surprised that you, of all people with your views on fat people and the study you have made of them, should now see fit to joke about them.. I thought it was very sad when Mr Shuttleworth said that he had “low self esteem issues.” I think that is what is usually behind this kind of over-eating. I dont know Mr Shuttleworth but if he is the man that I am thinking about who I have seen at a few first nights then I think he needs understanding. I don’t know though why he made such a fuss about it all. As I understand it, he wasnt named in the original piece to which he took such exception. Also as for the comment you make about Rhona Konig, I think that is beneath contempt. I am often struck by how cruel women can be to each other. I agree though that she shouldnt go on about other people making mistakes when she makes them herself.
I had been drinking when I wrote that: I would like to apologise to Mr Shuttleworth.
I’d like to say sorry to Ian too. It’s not at all fair. I don’t believe Ian Shuttleworth writes reviews which single out members of the cast or creative team. I don’t think he writes in a way which is personal. I don’t believe that he has shown a less than explemplary command of English grammar, and, more than that, I think he’s lovely.
Rosemary – I have to meet you!
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