Theatre Critics

Toby Young in The Spectator last week wrote about how some actors and directors respond rather violently to adverse criticism. He describes how a friend of his who had given an actor a bad review had a bucket-full of manure poured over his head while he sat in his open-topped BMW. On another occasion an actor whom Young himself had said nasty things about came up to him at a party and called him.... well, all sorts of nasty names.
I remember reading some time ago that a quite famous playwright had slapped Michael Billington about the head and face in the foyer of a theatre one night after Billington had slammed a play of his.
I was a theatre critic for some ten years here in Cardiff but was never actually attacked or called nasty names, though one performer was, I was told, "looking out for me" in Cardiff after I had slammed a panto he was appearing in.
And the nearest I got to a death threat was in a letter sent to the newspaper I worked for, which was sent on to me. I think it was a result of a review I had done of a play with Anna Neagle; I had the feeling that the writer of the letter might have been an ardent fan of hers. There was no written letter, only a cutting from a colour magazine which showed a plate of mashed potatoes with sausages inserted in it. Written on the picture in big letters were the words "Get Stuffed".