Sometimes you just want to tell Dave House not to get so overexcited. Sophie Willian: Novice Detective is “about as good as you can reasonably expect”. And Jenan Younis will be glad to learn that “the short length of her show means it remains quite fun throughout and never drags”. This may, however, just be […]
Graeme Connelly doesn’t really know what sentences are supposed to do. Every time he begins one he has no idea where it will end, or what he wants it to achieve. Most of the time he ends it prematurely, as if suddenly aborting its mission. Sometimes four or five sentences are sent out in succession, […]
Sharon Geoff is not really called Sharon Geoff but, since we’ve long since given up trying to suss out the surnames of anyone at One4Review we’ve decided to denome everyone as an adoptive child of Geoff (just Geoff) the Editor. Come to think of it we should have called Geoff ‘Geoff Geoff’ for consistency, but […]
So few reviewers these days write reviews that are, consistently, just the right length. Peter Edwards is one of the select group that does. If this is damning him with faint praise, I would add that he is also very capable. His reviews are concise, descriptive and… frank. Very, very frank. He is very harsh […]
Heather McDaid writes reasonably well. This is faint praise of course, but I’m guessing she is very young – many of her sentences trip over themselves and the reader is often stumped by confusion, bad grammar and ambiguity. Not that these faults are confined to youth, of course. But McDaid’s prose seems to have a […]
One thing I’ll guarantee you: You won’t read a Grace Brennan review and then rush out to buy a ticket. This reviewer takes a somewhat low-powered perambulation through the thing she’s seeing that, such that – even within a Three Weeks one-paragraph writeup – there’s ample space to nod off. Now and then a sentence […]
I must say I was a little annoyed by Madeleine Ash complaining about “the endless stream of stand-ups that swarm the Fringe”. Do you hear comedians complaining about the ceaseless pimpled plague of reviewers? Yes you do, and small wonder. However, Ash won me over – for the most part – by being quite capable […]
“It’s a confusing thing, when someone you want to like tells you he’s a serial adulterer” says Kyung of Will Mars, seeming to commit the cardinal sin of letting pre-held scruples usurp his judgment. It’s forgivable, though, as Kyung’s reviewing style is for the most part well-reasoned and very clear. He’s even willing to give […]
Melissa Lawford uses the words ‘moreover’ and ultimately’ far too much in her reviews, so I’m going to overuse them in her reviewer review, just so that (if she should chance to read it) she can see how annoying it becomes. Ultimately, Lawford is not a bad reviewer. Her sentences are crisp, considered and easy […]
Alanta Colley is photographed for Broadway Baby pretending to shoot a pigeon that is hovering just above her head. Nothing – animal, vegetable or mineral – will prevent her from chucking her big bucket of stars over everything she sees. She really does seem to like almost everything. There are victims, however. Metaphors are abducted […]
Emma Banks is a well-meaning reviewer, but her energy and nervousness sometimes get the better of her. Her problem is that, in trying to explain everything, she explains nothing at all. Of Ryan McDonnell she comments on his “ability to explore universal pitfalls of human experience through the lens of extremely unique and personal anecdotes”. […]
“Tears of laughter will merge with tears of fear,” says Clare Dolan about Dayne Rathbone. Tears of Fear? Has anyone ever cried such tears? It’s a shame, because this is the only silly thing Dolan says in her (admittedly not extensive) canon of five comedy reviews. In fact, her Rathbone review gave the best flavour […]
Samantha Strachan isn’t that fond of comedy. Of her 29 reviews – mostly cabaret and musicals – she deigned to see just four comedy shows in 2013, all of these with a theatrical or improv bent. This isn’t meant as criticism. More reviewers should stick to reviewing what they have a passion for; we’d get […]
Simon Pattullo is perhaps the most judgmental of the Skinny’s comedy reviewers. A sense of judgment is essential to a reviewer, of course, but Patullo consistently dismisses anything that doesn’t provide him with ‘belly laughs’, regardless of any other charms. Last year he made me scratch my head by saying of Laura Levites: “If anything, […]