“There are critics who love the theatre, who manage to express a sort of positive enthusiasm for the theatrical craft even with shows they dislike, and despite having had a wretched evening, remain infectious, enthusiastic and lacking in malice.
“On the other hand, there are those who neither know nor care about theatre. They are disgruntled sports writers or fashion reporters, doubtful poets or failed dramatists, who’ve been promoted sideways into what their editor considers to be a fairly harmless area–rather as prime ministers tend to reward colleagues who have fallen from grace by making them arts ministers.
“Many of us in the theatre spend our lives being concerned about the views of such people. My advice is don’t. Be grateful for the good or constructive ones and disregard the bad ones. If possible read neither, certainly not until much later. Life’s too short.”
Alan Ayckbourn, The Crafty Art of Playmaking