The End of the Golden Ages? or 2010-2020: the “Border” Decade for British and American Theatre Criticism
The End of the Golden Ages? or 2010-2020: the “Border” Decade for British and American Theatre Criticism

Summary/Abstract: This text is an exploration of the tendencies transpiring on the territory of theatre criticism in Britain and the US during the tumultuous last decade, in an attempt to create an overview of the criticism’s landscape there. Three main springboards for applying comparative analysis are used. First: the main features that have characterized the criticism’s models in the two countries, since their establishment, i.e. their “world of yesterday”. Second: a host of articles devoted to the dramatic changes in the criticism’s face there, published between 2010 and 2020. Third: a juxtaposition of the situation in the two countries criticism-wise. On focus are the factors that have triggered major changes in the subject-matter, most importantly, the role of the digital shift. The advantages and disadvantages of the digital criticism per se and as opposed to the traditional one are surveyed, as well as the search for securing criticism’s sustainability as a main way out of the much discussed impasse it appears to be in. While it remains to be seen if the golden ages of British and American criticism have indeed come to an end, to all appearances the last decade could well be called “a border” one.

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