Reviewers attending the musical “West Side Story” were issued with a set of “guidelines”, which looked like an effort to pre-empt and restrict negative comment, a clear attempt at media manipulation, writes a furious “CityNews” arts editor HELEN MUSA. 

THE reviewing profession in Canberra appears to be under siege, with the latest attack coming in the form of extraordinary document given to selected reviewers attending “West Side Story” at Gungahlin Theatre on Friday night.

The lengthy document, a list of “guidelines” to reviewers, included the following: to refer to cast members using their “correct” pronouns; to avoid grouping the actors by ethnicity while at the same time referring to the actors’ country of origin or heritage; to spell names according to the program; to use the “respectful, gender, neutral term ‘Latinx’”; to comment on artistic choices as having been made by the “collective creative team” rather than individuals; and to avoid cultural bias.

Obviously under such conditions, “CityNews” and other reviewing outlets with professional journalists will not review “West Side Story”.

In a long career reviewing theatre, this is the first time I have ever seen such a missive. It comes in the context of the company’s experiment in casting the famous musical’s Puerto Rican characters with purely Latino artists from the Canberra community.

Given the danger that the experiment would not succeed, the “guidelines” looked like an effort to pre-empt and restrict negative comment, a clear attempt at media manipulation.

Canberra’s reviewers are not known for prejudiced, racist or ethnically-based comment, so the exercise seemed misjudged.

In what producer Richard Block later said had been an error caused by haste, the “guidelines” were handed to some reviewers and journalists, but not others. By Sunday afternoon Block dropped the restriction on reviews, but the reviewers, some of whom left because of the “guidelines”, will need to see the production again.

He said the “guidelines” had been printed and released at the request of the creative team.

This latest check on media freedom follows the Canberra Times’ recent decision to abandon commissioning specialist arts critics on the doubtful basis that Canberrans prefer previews to reviews.

Once again, the Canberra public loses out, not having access to a seasoned assessment which might help them decide whether or not to attend a production costing $37 to $45 for a seat.

Helen Musa OAM, is the arts editor of “CityNews” and founding convener of the Canberra Critics’ Circle.

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