Customer Reviews

No Turn Unstoned: The Worst Ever Theatrical Reviews

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The world of theatre criticism can be a brutal and mean place where careers are lost and broken. The chance for comedy is just as enormous. Diana Rigg has compiled some of the meanest, nastiest, and funniest theatre reviews ever published. Playwrights, actors, actresses, directors and the productions themselves are all hung out to dry. This book is a hilarious addition to anyone's collection.

Diana Rigg, as an actor, has turned the other cheek by collecting and editing reviews of theatrical productions, past and present. Although the reviews are often at the expense of the principals in a production, they are written and edited in such a manner that makes them possibly more interesting than the production itself. If biting wit that sometimes draws blood is your thing, then you will enjoy this book.

One of those rare books that consistently leaves the reader in tears of laughter (albeit at someone else's expense).
I must say that I have newfound respect for actors after reading this book. The performers in these pages are some of the world's most renowned actors and yet no one escapes unscathed.
My favorite selection is the diary of an actress in a touring company of Romeo and Juliet and her description of the problems she encounters during a performance.
I wish I could give it more than five stars!

Typical of the type of review found in this collection - Dame Diana was appearing on Broadway in a play (Troilus & Cressida, i think) that included a nude scene with her male co-star. (As i recall, it would have been near the end of the 1960s - '68 or '69, perhaps - when she would have been about thirty.)

She reports that, after reading it, she was so deflated that she literally sneaked into the theatre before the next show and hid out in her dressing room until she absolutely *had* to go on.

The offending comment? " ... Diana Rigg, who is built like a brick cathedral with insufficient flying buttresses ... "

Diana Rigg has compiled the most hilarious book I've ever read. If you keep it in the bathroom guests or other family members will wonder why you are roaring with laughter behind the commode door. British wit and droll sarcasm at its finest.