The arts in Wales are becoming increasingly innovative. National Theatre Wales, for example, have done much to take the performing arts out of traditional spaces and off the stage, challenging conventional artistic boundaries in the process.
This got me thinking: if the performing arts are transforming and evolving, should the way we talk about them be changing too? Do we as critics need to re-think how we review them?
It’s time to review the review itself.
I’m not suggesting that “traditional” reviews have no value when discussing the arts— you’ll probably be seeing a few of these posted by me on the Young Critics blog over the coming months! However, I feel in some instances there must be more appropriate ways of expressing my views, particularly in relation to contemporary art.
I believe a key place to start looking for ideas is social networks. Consider Twitter. Users can only post updates of 140 characters or less at a time. Imagine if critics did this when writing reviews. Would such constraints diminish and restrict critics in their role? Or would it encourage us to think more creatively, whilst appealing to new audiences in innovative ways?
That is, of course, only one of many ways criticism could develop and evolve. Another idea is using multimedia such as video to review the arts, rather than adhering to the written word. Here’s a recent example of a video review for the production Dark Philosophers posted on the Young Critics blog. Perhaps this offers a new way forward for critics, and could be used to help reshape what is meant by a review?
I don’t have the answers to all the questions I’ve posed, so I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this. But one thing feels certain to me: we need to become critics of reviews themselves, not just the artworks we review.

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