Mark Fisher began by defining the difference between the opinions of the professional critic and the expressions of opinion in social media and the wider community. The critic needs to be authoritative and informed about the subjects he/she addresses, although no three critics will have the same opinion of a work. As an example of this divergence, he cited three very different critical views of the sculpture on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

He continued by asking what history can tell us about the role of the critic, beginning with Aristotle who discussed the arts by taking an evidence-based approach. 1500 years later his ideas reappeared in the Renaissance when they were developed into rules governing form and emphasising the need for simplicity, balance and purity in the arts. In architecture this manifested itself in the Neo-Classical style, in theatre by the adoption of the unities of time, place and action.

Shakespeare and subsequent English dramatists were less concerned with following Neo-Classical rules. The movement gradually morphed into Romanticism where rules were less important than the artist’s right to self-expression. Manzoni (Italy, 1820) articulated the importance of the individual artist and initiated a set of rules that could (and still can) be applied to all forms of the arts. The critic should ask three questions:

Firstly, what is the artist trying to do? 

Secondly, how well did they do it?

Thirdly, was it worth doing in the first place?

The critic should use these questions to judge, elucidate and explain the work, not the artist. The ideas that a work evokes can elicit discussion, but the critic must always be aware that it is easy to miss the point of a work if one is not fully au fait with its background. Mark concluded by saying that everyone has opinions and that having an opinion is nothing special, but the critic must always back up his opinions with a reason showing that, like Aristotle, his criticism is evidence-based.

Report by Judy Boaz

Lecturer Mark Fisher has written about the theatres since 1980. He is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer, and runs workshops on the art and role of the critic for schools, universities and theatres. He is the author of “The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide” and “How to Write About Theatre”.