A Southside History of the World

Following a short round of email fisticuffs with a choreographer- once again, I gave a lukewarm review to somebody who has my email address- I find myself disillusioned with the performance art scene. One of the reasons that I started this blog was my dissatisfaction at the availability and depth of critical writing. At the start of the project, I received an email that challenged my very right to be writing.

I guess that I have two ideas about criticism. One is that everybody is entitled to express their opinion. The other is that certain opinions have more value than others. It is the first position that allows me to defend my reviews; the second that forces me onwards to grapple with my words, to refine my position.

I wonder whether these ideas compete.

Without going into invidious detail- after all, it could be that I am utterly in the wrong here- I didn’t like the review of my review. That ought to give me some perspective on how it feels to be a performer.

Of course, there is more to it than that. Scotland is undergoing some sort of cultural renaissance at the moment: Scottish Ballet are escaping from years of twee pantomime, The National Theatre of Scotland is opening up new areas for dramatic exploration: Glasgow's festival season lasts all through the year, trumping the sudden burst of summer energy that sustains Edinburgh. And it bothers me that in the midst of all this, there is no proper performance criticism.

There are reviews, even the odd preview. But it all seems unsystematic, driven by deadlines and space restrictions. What I really mean is that there isn't enough criticism written by me in the way I want to write it.

I am working on a publication to celebrate twenty years of Tramway, an arts venue on the Southside of Glasgow. In the process of writing this book, I am meeting a wide variety of artists and performers and administrators and fans and musicians and writers and journalists. Unfortunately, most of our conversations are not going to end up in the book. This blog is an attempt to actually use the material that I have accumulated- to create a sort of archive of art, from the perspective of a single venue.