What is a review?
To put it simply, a review is a personal view about something. Indeed, the Oxford English dictionary defines a review as a ‘critical appraisal’ of – almost anything; a restaurant, tourist attraction, book, film or theatre production; and right now, we’ll be talking about the ‘theatre’ kind. They usually break a production down, providing details and honest appraisals of each aspect (i.e. plot, cast, set, lighting/sound/effects, music and chorography if applicable) – before ending with a summary and critique of the overall production. If you’ve read reviews, you’ll have noticed that most reviewers allocate a star rating, that basically measures how ‘good’ they feel that particular production is (this usually goes from one – being the worst to five – being the best).
Traditionally, these are written by full – time theatre critics (who usually work for a particular newspaper, magazine, or other publication – such as The Guardian, The Telegraph or The Stage) who receive free tickets to a certain production, in exchange for an honest review which is then published in said newspaper, magazine or publication. However, as technology has advanced, and even more so today – there are many critics who publish their work digitally on sites dedicated to providing theatre reviews and/or news (such as Whatsonstage), and there are still more theatre bloggers (avid theatre goers who write reviews on blogs they’ve set up – these people are not normally paid – they just do it because they enjoy it!). Theatre reviews can be very important; because they can help people decide whether, or not, to go and see a particular production – whether a popular one that you’re not sure is worth the hype, or a lesser known or ‘newbie’ that you haven’t heard of before! Reviews can provide a much needed ‘boost’ to productions by increasing their publicity – particularly if a lot of people read them! I.e. If a certain production has had a lot of glowing four or five star reviews, it’s extremely likely that more people will go to see it; benefitting the production team (i.e. this can help them to win awards, or, in the case of a touring production, a transfer to the West End – or even overseas!) Similarly, however, a bulk of negative reviews are likely to draw audiences away from a specific production.
Personally, I enjoy writing reviews because I’m passionate about the theatre (particularly musicals – the subject of the majority of my reviews!), and I love sharing my opinions with others. If there’s a show that I’ve really enjoyed or has wowed me, I like people to know! Also, knowing that reviewers like me have the power to influence others’ choices about what they see is really special. At the same time however, my views are my OWN and, in many cases, do not reflect those of others. I think its’ up to the individual reader whether to see a particular production regardless of what I thought about it. I’ve been fairly lucky because all of the shows I’ve seen so far, I’ve really enjoyed – and even those which I didn’t weren’t ‘bad.’ In many cases, a ‘so – so’ show only needs a bit of tweaking to make it into a good, or even amazing, one. That’s why I like to focus on the positives of a production when reviewing, and even when I’m writing about the ‘negatives’ – I always try to provide my personal recommendations (i.e. what could have been done to turn the negative into a positive). I share every review, once it’s published, on my social media pages (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).
Below is an example of the many reviews I’ve written. What’s different here is that I wrote this one about an arts event (the UCAN Perform Festival), not a stage production! The event was advertised via email and social media – see promotional social media post and email below:
NOW…… on to the review!
One of the biggest and most highly anticipated events in the UCAN calendar is the annual UCAN Festival. Each year, the fabulously talented team behind UCAN Productions take over the Wales Millennium Centre for an action – packed day of workshops, activities and games specifically designed for visually impaired young people and their friends to enjoy. Even better – everyone who attends is given the opportunity to perform on a small public stage in front of an audience! As I have joined UCAN in the first lockdown back in 2020, this year was my FIRST Festival – so I was really looking forward to it, since January in fact! I had some really high expectations of the event, and, boy, they were met, and then some!
Arrival and Group Warm – Up
When the big day arrived, I could hardly sit still in the car! On arrival, after being registered and allocated to a colour group (and after having had a much – needed catch – up with friends), I was escorted to the upstairs foyer which acted as our main gathering place.
After everybody had arrived, Jake and Taylor (two of the amazing UCAN workshop leaders) welcomed us, and introduced themselves and the rest of the UCAN team present – Alys (Drama and Improvisation Maestro), Alex (Legendary Sound Man), Hannah (Brilliantly Bubbly Peer to Peer Support Officer) and a whole band of volunteers (there to make sure the day ran smoothly). Then they explained how the day would work. During the morning, there would be a series of workshops (drama, tactile art and sound) that our groups would rotate around – so everybody could get a chance to do everything! Then, at around 12:20pm we would all head downstairs to eat our lunch, and THEN Performance Time!
Before all that however, we all took part in a group warm – up! Jake and Taylor led some simple stretches and movements, a fun “name” exercise so we could all get to know one another a bit better, and (my personal favourite part) a drama game called ‘Yes, let’s!” This involved Jake or Taylor shouting out for us to ‘be’ something or someone – and we would all shout back ‘yes, let’s!!!” with as much enthusiasm as possible, and then use our bodies and voices to transform into that something or someone. As the whole aim of the game (and indeed, most of UCAN activities) was to increase confidence and get us out of our comfort zone, some of the instructions were quite silly. Many times Danielle (who was standing next to me) and I would burst out laughing; particularly in an imaginary cat fight!
Workshop 1 – Drama
After the warm – up, we all split up into our groups and went to our first workshop. Our group stayed with Jake and Taylor for drama, which just so happened to be my favourite workshop of the day! We started by all sitting in a circle. Jake and Taylor encouraged us to share some basic personal facts so we could get to know one another a bit better. Then, to get our brains warmed up, we played a very high – octane game simply entitled ‘21.’ The basic idea is to count to twenty one as a group, taking one, two or three numbers each. The person who lands on ‘21’ is out. It’s a really fun game, but it gets quite tense when you’re nearing landing on ‘21’ because you have to decide whether to be nice, or mean.
Next up was an improvisation exercise called ‘What are you doing?’ Someone starts by entering the circle and pretends to do something, by miming and/or using their voice. Someone else comes into the circle and asks ‘What are you doing?’ and the original person has to say something completely different to what they’re actually doing. And so on around the circle. I really enjoyed this game because you could be really crazy with it and get people to do really outrageous things!
This workshop ended with an exercise whereby together, we had to create a live picture – by first choosing a setting (i.e. We did the beach and the supermarket), and then each chose someone (or something) that you’d find in that setting. Then we used our voices and bodies to bring the picture to life. I enjoyed this exercise; especially watching Star as a frustrated supermarket customer attempting to work my faulty self – service machine!
Overall, I thought this first workshop was really well put – together and was, in my opinion, the strongest session of the day in terms of overall structure and activities included. Both Jake and Taylor obviously have a passion for drama, and it really showed in the way that they ran this workshop; their sheer enthusiasm was a real pleasure to behold. They were also both so encouraging towards every participant, gently encouraging us to take part in the activities but at the same time not placing any pressure on us to do anything that we were uncomfortable with. They were also really playful and made the activities really fun!
Workshop 2 – Body Percussion?
The next workshop our group was scheduled to take part in was tactile art. However, Hannah could immediately tell that I didn’t fancy it because I don’t really enjoy art (school put me off) and don’t think I’m very good at it – and therefore allowed me to stay in the drama workshop for another session if I wanted (see what I mean without not putting any pressure on people?).
However, before we could get started, Hannah popped back in and asked if I wanted to do some body percussion – a hasty addition to the day. Intrigued, I agreed. However, it turned out to be the weakest part of the day, as, although a good idea, it was really poorly organised. I think the plan was to let Catrin lead this workshop as part of her Bronze Arts Award, but it didn’t really work out as apart from me, Hannah and some of the older members of UCAN, no one else wanted to take part – despite our best persuasive efforts! I think this idea would’ve worked better if Catrin was given the opportunity to plan the workshop in advance, and then if it was added to the morning rotation.
Workshop 3 – Sound
The final workshop of the day was all about exploring sound effects, led by Alex!
As the tactile art ran a bit over, this workshop was unfortunately cut short – but it was still fun! Unlike the drama, there didn’t seem to be a defined structure to this session – Alex put a lot of emphasis on just exploring different sounds and voice recording techniques, and just let us be experimental with it, which I thought was very refreshing.
First, he recorded us all saying our names, which he then inputted into his machine to say backwards. We all had to try and copy our ‘backwards’ names and then he inputted this back into the machine, to see if it came out the right way! This was hilarious to say the least, some actually had their names spot on – but the majority of us was WAAAAAY out!
Next came an improvisation activity where we had to come with unusual supermarket announcements – which he then recorded over realistic sound effects! This was really fun, and some announcements were hilarious!
Performances!
After lunch came the moment we (let’s face it) had all been waiting for – the performances! After a short intro by Jake and Taylor, they jumped straight into things with Yours Truly! (If you’re curious to know how that went – check out my previous blog post!).
After me, Danielle recited some original poetry. She injected plenty of expression into her performance, and her confidence and poise on stage really wowed!
Next up was Star, who sang (two original songs, and two covers) while accompanying herself on the ukulele. Along with Danielle, I think this was one of the best performances of the day. Star’s vocals were absolutely incredible, and for being self taught, her skills on the ukulele were impressive too. She was every inch the consummate professional!
That was the end of the planned performances, but little did we know there was one more unexpected surprise in store. After leading an impromptu game of ‘Funky Chicken’ (a particular UCAN favourite) Jake and Taylor decided to open the stage up to everyone – and out of nowhere, Catrin and her younger sister sang ‘I just can’t wait to be king’ from The Lion King in WelshI – with added body percussion! I mean, talk about multi – skilled! The final performance came from Mabli, a budding musical – theatre star – unfortunately I can’t remember what song she sang, but her vocals were flawless and I’m sure that with a voice like that she’ll end up in the West End very soon! A great end to a GREAT day!
Overall Feelings about the Event
Overall, what a day! As I said earlier, I had huge expectations for my first UCAN Festival, and it’s fair to say that I didn’t come away disappointed! Yes, certain aspects weren’t organised as well as others, but that certainly didn’t impact on my overall experience. It was such a fantastic day, enjoyed by everyone concerned; massive congratulations should go to every member of the UCAN Team (and the volunteers) for making this event possible, and for making it such a joy to participate in. Roll on next year!
Sharing the Review with others
After I published this review in September 2022, I shared the link on my Twitter page and with the UCAN group on Facebook (before I added Instagram too), and I was lucky enough to receive many comments from people who followed the link to read the review, and enjoyed it! That’s another reason why I enjoy writing reviews; getting positive feedback! Knowing that people enjoy reading what you write makes it all worthwhile! 🙂
