I don’t think Andrew Doherty wishes death upon any theatre critics. He certainly didn’t kill me when I came to see his new show. Still, I do think he was genuinely upset by the so-so reception given to last year’s Sad Gay Aids Play – a marked contrast to his roundly-hailed debut Gay Witch Sex Cult – and has explored his hurt feelings in quite spectacularly entertaining way with third show Reviewers Welcome… TO DIE!
It is, on one level, incredibly childish. Continuing the horror-comedy streak of Doherty’s previous work, it’s basically a supernatural revenge fantasy about a venal, conceited nepo baby theatre critic named Felix Chatelier being punished by supernatural forces for daring to give Sad Gay Aids Play three stars.
Critics make for fun punchbags. But it is, of course, absurd that anyone would make this much fuss about a three-star review and the author is well aware of this. The thin-skinned Doherty of Reviewers Welcome is as much an exaggerated persona as the weaselly sell-out of Sad Gay Aids Play.
As the feckless Chatelier is lured out to the desolate, Lovecraftian East Midlands town of Billington, he in fact becomes marginally more sympathetic as he tries to unravel the demonic mystery that haunts the place. Meanwhile ‘Andrew Doherty’ is introduced as a tall, handsome, gruff, hugely successful playwright who never reads his reviews and who everyone loves and admires to an absurd degree.
It is funny because it’s so gloriously petty, because Doherty is mocking himself so amusingly, but also because at the same time there’s the sense that under it all there’s a genuine animosity animating it. Of course he was upset by the reviews, and it’s wonderful that he’s chosen to express himself like this.
A caveat: I’m a theatre critic who gave Sad Gay Aids Play three stars and Doherty has written a show about a theatre critic who gave Sad Gay Aids Play three stars: of course I like it. But really at heart it’s an ebullient, horror-tinged celebration of being a hater – something to which we can all relate.
